Due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) situation in Michigan, the Executive Committee of Southeast Michigan Mensa regretfully announces that’ the monthly gathering, “Artificial Intelligence and the Vanishing Future of Work”, previously scheduled on March 21, has been cancelled. Please check back for announcements on future events.
Will artificial intelligence (AI) take away jobs or usher in a prosperous utopia? Will innovations such as self-driving cars reduce our use of fossil fuels or accelerate emissions? What will high IQ and a college degree be worth when knowledge work can be done by machine? This talk considers these and other questions through the lens of technology’s “Law of Amplification.” Paradoxically, Kentaro Toyama, this month’s guest speaker, believes what is needed most in a world of advanced technology is greater attention to human values and virtues.
Dr. Kentaro Toyama is W. K. Kellogg Professor of Community Information at the University of Michigan School of Information, a fellow of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT, and author of Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology. Kentaro previously taught at Ashesi University in Ghana and co-founded Microsoft Research India, where he did research on the application of digital technology to international development.
Dr. Toyama co-founded the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) to provide a global platform for rigorous academic research in this field. He is also co-editor-in-chief of the journal Information Technologies and International Development. Prior to his time in India, Toyama researched computer vision and multimedia at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA, USA and Cambridge, UK. Toyama graduated from Yale with a PhD in Computer Science and from Harvard with a BS in Physics. He was born in Tokyo and raised in both Japan and the United States. He lives in Ann Arbor.
Join us on Saturday, March 21st, for a glimpse into your future! We’ll meet at
Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church in Southfield.
23925 Northwestern Hwy
Southfield, MI 48075
Doors open at 6:30pm. The program begins at 7:00pm. Admission: $5, (Mensa Members $4)
Following the presentation, join us for dinner at Buddy’s Pizza, located at 31646 Northwestern Hwy., in Farmington Hills, Just East of Middlebelt Rd.