The Experts
The Experts
TIM URBAN
Technology Writer, Wait But Why
Tim Urban is one of the Internet’s most popular technology writers. His blog, Wait But Why covers every subject from procrastination to artificial intelligence and has garnered millions of unique page views, thousands of patrons and famous fans like Elon Musk.
Eugenia Kuyda
Founder, Replika
After the death of a close friend, Eugenia created a chatbot that replicated his speech patterns. A ‘memorial bot’ that friends and family could chat to. This evolved into Replika.AI, an app which allows you to create an A.I. ‘best friend’. It can mimic your text conversations, powered by a proprietary deep learning architecture. In its first week it amassed 1.5M sign ups and has quickly grown to 4M users.
HIROSHI ISHIGURO
Roboticist
Hiroshi Ishiguro is professor of Osaka University and visiting director of the Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories in ATR. He is trying to create androids that are more and more lifelike – humans in robot form. He has made an android that resembles him, called the Geminoid. His research is learning about humanity and what makes us human.
Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories
MATT MCMULLEN
Sex Roboticist
Matt McMullen is, first and foremost, an artist and design director. Twenty years ago, he founded RealDoll - one of the US’s leading manufacturers of silicone sex dolls. Recently, they launched Harmony, claimed to be the world’s first commercially available sex robot with robotic head, learning capable AI app, head adapter with a Bluetooth speaker, touch sensors and internal heaters.
PABLOS HOLMAN
Inventor, Intellectual Ventures Lab
Pablos is a notorious hacker, inventor, entrepreneur and technology futurist. At Intellectual Ventures Lab, he has created a brain surgery tool, a machine to suppress hurricanes, 3D food printers, and a laser that can shoot down mosquitos – part of an impact invention effort to eradicate malaria with Bill Gates.
RODNEY BROOKS
AI & Robotics Pioneer
Rodney is a robotics entrepreneur and former MIT professor. He is a founder and former Chief Technical Officer of iRobot - the company that created the popular Roomba vacuum cleaner. He believes that robots will be an essential and positive part of the future – relieving us of mundane, repetitive, mechanical tasks.
SCOTT PHOENIX
Co-Founder Vicarious
Scott Phoenix is an American entrepreneur and co-founder of Vicarious, an AI company that is building artificial general intelligence for robots. Vicarious has raised over $135 million in funding from luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Jeff Bezos. He is an advocate for the development of safe AI, and a leading signatory on the Future of Life Institute’s Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence.
TOBY WALSH
Scientia Professor of AI, UNSW, Data61 & TU Berlin
Toby Walsh is a leading researcher in Artificial Intelligence who has held research positions all over Europe. He has been a leading advocate calling for a ban on autonomous weapons at the UN and elsewhere.
IYAD RAHWAN
Co-creator - Moral Machine MIT
Rahwan’s work lies at the intersection of computer science and human behaviour, with a focus on collective intelligence, large-scale cooperation, and the societal impact of Artificial Intelligence and social media. Recently, Rahwan led a team that crowdsourced 40 million decisions from people worldwide about the ethics of autonomous vehicles.
TED Talk
MIKLOS KISS
Head of Advance Development Automated Driving, Audi AG
Miklós has a background in neuropsychology, linguistics and human-machine interfaces. Since 2017, he has been in charge of advance development of the functions necessary for automated driving at Audi AG.
Marc Lichte
Head of Design, Audi AG
Marc Lichte has been Head of Design at Audi since 2014. Among other things, he is now thinking about the design possibilities for autonomous vehicles. These vehicles will be radically different to the cars of today. With no need for a forward-facing driver’s seat, space is available to engage in other pursuits, radically changing the entire layout and feel of the interiors.
MARK LITTLE
Journalist & Entrepreneur
Mark Little is a journalist with 20 years experience in broadcast news. His start-up, Kinzen, is dedicated to taking back control of the news experience – by developing algorithms that feed us news stories that expand our knowledge, rather than just grab our attention.
PINDAR VAN ARMAN
Artist & Roboticist
Pindar Van Arman is an American artist and roboticist who designs painting robots that explore the differences between human and computational creativity. Since his first system in 2005 he has built multiple artificially creative robots, the most famous of which - CloudPainter - was awarded First Place in Robot Art 2018.
NICK BOSTROM
Professor, University of Oxford & Director, Future of Humanity Institute
Nick Bostrom is a polymath with a background in theoretical physics, computational neuroscience, logic, and artificial intelligence, as well as philosophy. His Book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies is a New York Times bestseller which helped spark global conversation on AI.
YUKIYASU KAMITANI
Professor Neuroinformatics, University of Kyoto
Yukiyasu Kamitani received international attention in 2012, when he led a team that used functional neuroimaging to scan the brains of people as they slept, enabling them to decode the visual content of their dreams.
DR ERIC LEUTHARDT
Neurosurgeon & Inventor
Dr Eric Leuthardt works at the forefront of neuroscience and neurological diseases. As Director of Washington University’s Center for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology, he gathers neurosurgeons, engineers, mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists to collaborate and develop new technologies to improve the lives of patients with neurological diseases.
Center For Innovation In Neuroscience and Technology