This week in AI, Natalie and Kobi tackle some hefty potential societal impacts.

They talk about the strange proposition of a young woman "cloning" herself via chatGPT to outsource her "girlfriend experience"; to celebrated American science fiction writer Ted Chiang writing about whether AI is set to become something of a consultant or third party for problem solving; to ex-DeepMind co-founder Moustafa Suleyman calling on governments to find solutions for people who lose their jobs to AI, and the links between all of these activities.

Links:

https://fortune.com/2023/05/09/snapchat-influencer-launches-carynai-virtual-girlfriend-bot-openai-gpt4/

https://www.newyorker.com/science/allans-of-artificial-intelligence/will-ai-become-the-new-mckinsey

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-28/stage-three-tax-cuts-to-scale/102268304

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/29/fully-automated-luxury-communism-aaron-bastani-review

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/give-us-fully-automated-luxury-communism/592099/

Eliiza is teaming up with Jewelrock and Women in AI APAC to run a limited interview series in support of the Women in AI Awards 2023. The series will showcase conversations with a number of thought leaders and subject matter experts across industry and academia in Australia and New Zealand on topics like career, the future of AI technologies and the responsible application of AI.

Our esteemed guests are all representing sponsors of the Women in AI Awards, which will be held on 16th June in Sydney for the APAC region.

Our next guest is Deborah Henderson, Data & Cloud Partner at KPMG Australia.

Bio:

Deborah is a Partner in KPMG Australia's Data and Cloud practice and has significant experience in technology specialising in data and analytics. She has worked internationally and locally in Australia, helping organisations across multiple industries lift their data and analytics maturity to enhance the value of their data assets. Deborah combines her vast technical background and experience in leading large scale data transformation programs across the public and private sectors and multiple industries to provide a holistic perspective on how organisations can drive value from data. Deborah is KPMG Australia's Data and Cloud Education sector lead, and also heads up our ESG data offerings whilst continuing to deliver data services for clients in multiple industries.

Deborah is recognised as a leader in delivering successful business outcomes across the entire data value chain from strategy through to implementation and has delivered keynotes at conferences and presented as a guest lecturer at some of the top universities in Australia. Deborah leverages her expertise in using modern cloud technology and human centred design to uplift and transform data and analytics capability for our clients, helping them navigate complexity to extract more organisational value from the investments they make and close the gap from data to impact.

She believes that organisations need to be data fit to be future smart and that those organisations poised to use evidence based practice to make informed decisions and inspire action will have a lasting and positive impact that enables people, organisations, and society to thrive.

Links:

Deborah Henderson on Linkedin

Deborah Henderson at KPMG Australia

Eliiza is teaming up with Jewelrock and Women in AI APAC to run a limited interview series in support of the Women in AI Awards 2023. The series will showcase conversations with a number of thought leaders and subject matter experts across industry and academia in Australia and New Zealand on topics like career, the future of AI technologies and the responsible application of AI.

Our esteemed guests are all representing sponsors of the Women in AI Awards, which will be held on 16th June in Sydney for the APAC region.

Our next guest is Dr Irini (Rena) Logothetis, Research Fellow at the Applied AI Institute at Deakin University.

Bio:

From software development in Melbourne to managing an island hotel in Greece, showing designs at Fashion Week in Athens, to biomechanical engineering to medical and assistive technology research at an AI institute; Rena Logothetis has had an unconventional career path.

Researcher - Deakin University's Applied AI Institute (A2I2)

Specialising in system design and analysis, projects including:

• TR&R trauma support system in The Alfred Hospital Melbourne
• Development of a multi-use Smart Lab designed to test assistive technology to allow older people to live better, safer, longer lives at home
• A world-first autonomous wheelchair system
• A world-first falls prevention research project

PhD – Engineering Biomechanics

Co-Founder & Managing Director, Avioti Fashion Ed in Athens, Greece

Co-Founder & Managing Director of a hotel on the island of Lefkas, Greece

Links:

Dr Rena Logothetis on LinkedIn

Dr Rena Logothetis at Deakin University

Eliiza is teaming up with Jewelrock and Women in AI APAC to run a limited interview series in support of the Women in AI Awards 2023. The series will showcase conversations with a number of thought leaders and subject matter experts across industry and academia in Australia and New Zealand on topics like career, the future of AI technologies and the responsible application of AI.

Our esteemed guests are all representing sponsors of the Women in AI Awards, which will be held on 16th June in Sydney for the APAC region.

Our next guest is Dr Yun Sing Koh, Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Auckland.

Bio:

Dr Yun Sing Koh is an associate professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Auckland, specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Currently, she holds the position of Director of the Centre of Machine Learning for Social Good. Her research mainly focuses on three areas: continual learning and adaptation, anomaly detection, and data stream mining. She applies her research to interdisciplinary applications in environment and health domains. Throughout her career, she has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in top conference venues such as IJCAI, IEEE ICDE, IEEE ICDM. She has also published in high-quality journals, including Machine Learning Journal and Journal of Artificial Intelligence, and has received numerous awards, such as the best paper award at the Australasian Artificial Intelligence Conference (2022, 2018), best research paper award at IEEE Data Science Advance Analytics (2022), and AUT University Vice-Chancellor Emerging Researcher Award (2009).

Between 2012-2023, she secured various grants and contracts, including being a primary investigator for prestigious grants internationally and nationally, such as the New Zealand Royal Society of Fast-Start Marsden and Office of Naval Research Grant, US. Currently, she holds or is a part of 7 major grants as a principal or associate investigator. Yun Sing is currently a fellow for the 2023 Convergence Research (CORE) Institute funded by United States National Science Foundation. Aside from her research work, she has also been active in contributing to service and leadership roles in various organizations. She held the position of General Chair of the Australasian Data Mining 2022 and General Chair of the IEEE International Conference of Data Mining 2021. She also served as Program Committee Co-Chair for the Australasian Data Mining Conference 2018, Workshop and Tutorial Chair for European Conference of Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery 2021, Publicity Chair at 24th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management 2015, and Workshop Co-Chair, Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining Conference 2011. Since 2018, she has been a steering committee member for the Australasian Data Mining Conference and is a senior program committee member for top conferences, including AAAI, IJCAI, PAKDD, and ECML.

Links:

Dr Yun Sing Koh on LinkedIn

Dr Yun Sing Koh at the University of Auckland

Eliiza is teaming up with Jewelrock and Women in AI APAC to run a limited interview series in support of the Women in AI Awards 2023. The series will showcase conversations with a number of thought leaders and subject matter experts across industry and academia in Australia and New Zealand on topics like career, the future of AI technologies and the responsible application of AI.

Our esteemed guests are all representing sponsors of the Women in AI Awards, which will be held on 16th June in Sydney for the APAC region.

Our next guest is Aruna Kolluru, the Chief Technologist, Emerging Technology at Dell Technologies, Asia Pacific & Japan.

Bio:

Aruna Kolluru is the Chief Technologist for Emerging Technologies at Dell Technologies, Asia Pacific and Japan. In this capacity, she collaborates with organizations throughout the Asia-Pacific region to provide them with a comprehensive understanding of the potential of emerging technologies and how to conceptualize, create, and leverage these solutions to achieve tangible business outcomes. She is also a member National AI Centre, Australia, Think Tanks, providing expertise and insights on the topics of Responsible AI, Diversity and Inclusion in AI, and AI at Scale. She is also an Expert Advisor at Responsible AI Institute and a Technical committee member of TinyML Asia Pacific.

Based in Sydney, Aruna is at the forefront of emerging technologies and has helped numerous companies build solutions with Artificial Intelligence, Digital Twins, Quantum Computing, Federated Learning, Big Data and other innovative technologies. She has 22 years of experience in the industry, covering a broad spectrum of technologies.

Prior to her role at Dell Technologies, Aruna worked in various positions including Cloud Platforms Technologist, Big Data Technologist, Middleware Technologist, Java Architect and Presales specialist at both IBM and Oracle. Having worked across a variety of different technology areas, she appreciates facing new challenges and has enjoyed an ongoing learning process and new challenges.

Her technical expertise coupled with her passion for educating and exciting others about new technology is what sets Aruna apart. She is an accomplished thought leader, passionate about intersection of business and technology opens in bettering business and society at large and is particularly interested in furthering the appetite for adoption of emerging technologies to achieve this. Her work on applying machine learning to optimise operational efficiency in data back-up systems has been patented. In addition, she has received and been shortlisted for several industry awards, recognising the work she had done to support customers across the APJ region. She is a co-author of the book 60 leaders in AI.

Aruna is a speaker at AI conferences, round tables, podcasts, and several other events. Furthermore, she is an active mentor in the IT industry, frequently speaking at a variety of programs, including Dell Technologies' Girls in Engineering and Technology, the Dell and UTS partnership for Women in Action, AI Avengers program, the Dell Technologies Code like a Girl program and guest lectures at universities.

Aruna holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and Systems Engineering from Andhra University in India, a masters degree in Software Systems from BITS, PILANI, India, and a Graduate Diploma in Management from the Australian Graduate School of Management. Aruna is a self-learner has completed extensive training programs and certifications to developed advanced technical skills and stay abreast with the latest.

Links:

Aruna Kolluru on Linkedin

National AI Centre Think Tanks

Responsible AI Institute

TinyML Asia Pacific

Applying machine learning to optimise operational efficiency in data back-up systems

60 Leaders in AI

Eliiza is teaming up with Jewelrock and Women in AI APAC to run a limited interview series in support of the Women in AI Awards 2023. The series will showcase conversations with a number of thought leaders and subject matter experts across industry and academia in Australia and New Zealand on topics like career, the future of AI technologies and the responsible application of AI.

Our esteemed guests are all representing sponsors of the Women in AI Awards, which will be held on 16th June in Sydney for the APAC region.

Our latest guest is Malliga Krishnan from Capgemini.

Bio:

Malliga is the Data, Analytics and AI leader for Capgemini Australia and New Zealand. Her in-depth knowledge and experience from over two decades in Technology Consulting sets the strong foundation for creating meaningful business impact through AI, data engineering and data platforms.

Malliga is a strong advocate of building high-performing teams underpinned by empowerment, collaboration and diversity. Her passion for people and data anchor her unique perspectives on ethical and sustainable AI and its potential to revolutionise the world around us.

There have been several noteworthy developments in the world of AI this week, and in today's episode, we share our take on the good, the bad, and the WTF. We start off by discussing exciting developments at The Human Technology Institute and how their new project, The Future of AI Regulation in Australia, aims to help laws and regulations catch up with language learning models like ChatGPT. Next, we reflect on the tragic news of the first death directly linked to a chatbot, how little the public truly understands about these technologies, and what can be done to minimize these types of risks in future. Our conversation then delves into the proposed moratorium to halt the development of more sophisticated versions of ChatGPT and key concerns that are being raised around this topic. We also spend some time unpacking the problematic source behind this petition, namely, The Future of Life Institute, before discussing what experts like Emily M. Bender And Gary Marcus have to say about the topic. To learn more about this week in AI, including our top takeaways, be sure to tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

• The Human Technology Institute's new project: The Future of AI Regulation in Australia.

• Reflections on the first tragic death directly linked to a chatbot.

• Our thoughts on the petition for a moratorium to halt the development of more sophisticated versions of ChatGPT.

• The problematic elements of the proposed moratorium, including its lack of boundaries and guardrails.

• A reminder of the controversial origins of the Future of Life Institute and why the fact that they are funding this petition should act as a warning sign.

• An overview of the discourse around this topic and our key takeaways.

• Why laws and regulations have failed to keep pace with the language learning models like ChatGPT.

• How the Human Technology Institute's new project aims to improve regulation, ensure more equitable distribution of wealth, and minimize the potential harm of these technologies.

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

'Man ends his life after an AI chatbot 'encouraged' him to sacrifice himself to stop climate change'

'The first known chatbot associated death'

'Elon Musk Signs Open Letter Urging AI Labs to Pump the Brakes'

'The Future of AI Regulation in Australia'

Ed Santow on LinkedIn

University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

Human Technology Institute (HTI)

Emily M. Bender

Emily M. Bender on LinkedIn

Emily M. Bender on Medium

'On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?'

'Policy makers: Please don't fall for the distractions of #AIhype'

The Future of Life Institute

Natalie Rouse on LinkedIn

Dr Kobi Leins

Dr Kobi Leins on LinkedIn

Dr Kobi Leins on Twitter

Eliiza

Eliiza is teaming up with Jewelrock and Women in AI APAC to run a limited interview series in support of the Women in AI Awards 2023. The series will showcase conversations with a number of thought leaders and subject matter experts across industry and academia in Australia and New Zealand on topics like career, the future of AI technologies and the responsible application of AI.

Our esteemed guests are all representing sponsors of the Women in AI Awards, which will be held on 16th June in Sydney for the APAC region.

Our first guest is Professor Ann Nicholson, the Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University.

Bio:

Professor Nicholson graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and a Master of Science (Computer Science) from the University of Melbourne. In 1988, she was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where she completed her doctorate in the Robotics Research Group. She then undertook a postdoc at Brown University before returning to Australia to join Monash.

Professor Nicholson is the first woman appointed into her prestigious role of Dean, Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. She is a champion for greater Indigenous participation in her faculty and supports many initiatives to bring more girls and women into IT careers.

Professor Nicholson is responsible for more than 200 staff, 5,400+ students and leading IT courses taught in Australia, Malaysia, China, Indonesia and South Africa. Joining the University in 1994, her leadership expertise is broad and diverse – garnered through a range of executive roles across education, research and industry, including Associate Dean (Education) and Deputy Dean (Research).

A globally-esteemed specialist in Bayesian Networks, Professor Nicholson's research focuses on translational impact and social good, with cross-disciplinary collaborations in epidemiology, medicine, education, environmental science and meteorology. She has published more than 120 peer reviewed papers and co- authored the highly regarded 'Bayesian Artificial Intelligence' textbook. Her research has attracted over $12M in research funding, and has resulted in two start-up companies for technology transfer of Bayesian AI.

Currently Professor Nicholson is the Honorary Secretary of the Victorian Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee; a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) and of the Computing Research and Education Association of Australasia (CORE) ; and a member of professional societies, ACM, IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society. She was a co-founder, inaugural president and long-term board member of ABNMS.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholsonann/

https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/ann-nicholson

On this episode of AI Australia, we are going on the road! Join us as we go inside the National AI Centre (NAIC)'s inaugural AI Leadership Summit, held in Sydney in March. We hear from some of the leaders from NAIC, CSIRO and industry on the progress of NAIC's three think tanks (Responsible AI, Diversity & Inclusion in AI, and AI at Scale); the purpose of the summit; and how NAIC are aiming to bring together AI leaders across Australia under the banner of Responsible AI. NAIC director Stela Solar talks to us about the Responsible AI Network (RAIN) that was launched by Hon. Ed Husic MP on the day, and her plan for expanding the network across Australia, all while battling the challenges of recording in a bustling conference environment.

Sending a huge thank you to all our wonderful guests who kindly took time out of their day to share their thoughts and experiences with us:

• Min Livanidis (https://www.linkedin.com/in/min-livanidis-a35b58ba/)
• Brendan Dalton (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendan-dalton-560ab376/)
• Aruna Pattam (https://www.linkedin.com/in/arunapattam/)
• Cheng Soon Ong (https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheng-soon-ong-38bbb524/)
• Rita Arrigo (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rarrigo/)
• Judy Slatyer (https://www.linkedin.com/in/judyslatyer/)
• Aurelie Jacquet (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurelie-jacquet-94b75638/)
• Stela Solar (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stelasolar/)

Key points from this episode:

• An introduction to the NAIC AI Leadership Summit with Natalie and Kobi
• What being part of the think tanks mean to several members
• Why the summit is so important
• How this group will help drive a more inclusive and responsible AI future for Australia
• The purpose of each think tank
• Stela shares the background of NAIC, the inception of the Think Tanks and the purpose of RAIN
• Closing comments from Kobi and Natalie

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

https://www.csiro.au/naic

https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/industries/technology/National-AI-Centre/Responsible-AI-Network

https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/industries/technology/National-AI-Centre/NAIC-Think-Tanks

On this episode of AI Australia, we bring about an exciting topic and project being taken on by those at the children's charity Variety in collaboration with the data consultancy company Eliiza and not-for-profit service provider Data4Good to analyse data over the past several years to gain insights into where funding and grants are being distributed. We're joined on the podcast by Mandy Burns from Variety and Mahdi Rasouli from Eliiza. They share with us the story behind how they were connected through Data4Good and what the current decision-making process looks like for allocating grants at Variety. We hear all about the experience of working with Eliiza and the process of collecting, reviewing, and analysing the data. What's next for Variety and their work with Eliiza? Tune in to find out!

Key Points From This Episode:

• An introduction to Mandy Burns and the children's charity Variety.

• How they, at Variety, currently decide on where to allocate grants/ funds.

• How they were introduced to Eliiza by Data4Good.

• A quick introduction to Mahdi Rasouli; part of the data science team at Eliiza

• Mandy shares the experience of working with Eliiza.

• The process of reviewing the data and what they wanted to do with it/ how to analyse it.

• The significance of Variety collecting, reviewing, and understanding the data.

• Working towards automation of data and decision-making.

• The importance of having the why and understanding the scope of the issue.

• Mandy shares some insights they got out of the exercise working with Eliiza.

• What's next for Variety and their work with Eliiza.

• How Mandy connected with Data4Good.

• The heart behind Variety.

Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Mandy Burns on LinkedIn

Mahdi Rasouli on LinkedIn

Variety

Data4Good

'Eliiza and Data4Good team up to decipher grants data for Variety'

Natalie Rouse on LinkedIn

Dr Kobi Leins

Dr Kobi Leins on LinkedIn

Dr Kobi Leins on Twitter

Eliiza