Companies and governments increasingly deploy intelligent systems to the real world. These systems—depending on the design and purpose—have the capacity to either greatly enhance the general well-being of the world or bring about some form of a science fiction dystopia.

Sean McGregor, who will speak to us via teleconference, will cover both aspects of these systems in equal measure. First, he'll share examples of leading-edge "AI for Good" research. Then, he'll guide us through some real-world harms caused by deployed AI systems as explored from the AI Incident Database now under development with the Partnership on AI. Sean will then wrap up the talk with a discussion of current opportunities and risks in the development of AI systems for the general welfare.

Join us for a great presentation and discussion! We'll have snacks, and there will be an opportunity for networking afterwards. We hope to see you there!

Speaker bio:

Sean defended his machine learning PhD at Oregon State University with research projects at the intersection of reinforcement learning and public policy. He now focuses on solving real-world problems with machine learning and visual analytics, including problems in wildfire suppression, heliophysics, and analog neural network computation.

Outside of his research, Sean serves as technical lead for the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, chair of the Partnership on AI expert group for Safety Critical AI, and member of the Fair, Transparent, and Accountable (FTA) expert group. Sean's "day job" is developing neural networks to run on analog architectures at Syntiant. Outside of his paid work, Sean co-founded the Portland TA3M, a series of workshops at major academic AI conferences on the topic of "AI for Good," and a now defunct non-profit dedicated to privacy education, the Privly Foundation.

By attending this TA3M meeting, you agree to follow our Code of Conduct: https://www.meetup.com/Portlands-Techno-Activism-3rd-Mondays/pages/22681732/Code_of_Conduct/

{short} Code of Conduct Portland's Techno-Activism 3rd Mondays is dedicated to providing an informative and positive experience for everyone who participates in or supports our community, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, socioeconomic status, caste, or creed.

Our events are intended to educate and share information related to technology and activism, and anyone who is there for this purpose is welcome. Because we value the safety and security of our members and strive to have an inclusive community, we do not tolerate harassment of members or event participants in any form.

Audio and video recording are not permitted at meetings without prior approval.

Our Code of Conduct (https://www.meetup.com/Portlands-Techno-Activism-3rd-Mondays/pages/22681732/Code_of_Conduct/) applies to all events run by Portland's TA3M. Please report any incidents to the event organizer.