IDEAS ON TAP: Artificial Intelligence: Is There a Ghost in the Machine?

New Hampshire Humanities presents the second in a six-part 2019-2020 Ideas on Tap series. Ideas on Tap is a series of events around the state that explores timely contemporary topics to generate “pint-sized conversations about big ideas.”

The next program, “Artificial Intelligence: Is There a Ghost in the Machine?”, will be held on Tuesday, November 19 from 5:30-7:30 pm at Martha’s Exchange Restaurant & Brewing Company, 185 Main Street, Nashua. Cost to attend is $15 per person and includes appetizers and one beverage (beer, wine, or non-alcoholic drink) in a relaxed atmosphere. To register for this event or to view other topics in the 2019-2020 series, please visit www.nhhumanities.org/ideas or call New Hampshire Humanities at 603-224-4071.

 
Cambridge Trust and NH Charitable Foundation are lead sponsors of this year’s Ideas on Tap series. In the November 19 program, we'll examine the ethical challenges surrounding artificial intelligence and machine learning, the risks and benefits, and who gets to decide which is which. Due to the popularity of this artificial intelligence program presented last year in Manchester, it is being brought to Nashua as part of the 2019-2020 series.  Join us for a dynamic conversation moderated by New Hampshire Humanities Program Manager, Dr. Tricia Peone, along with Jesse Damiani, Deputy Director of Emerging Technology at Southern NH University; and Dr. Wheeler Ruml, Professor of Computer Science at the University of New Hampshire.
 
Panelists include:
 
Jesse Damiani, Deputy Director of Emerging Technology at Southern NH University, is an entrepreneur, advisor, journalist, curator, educator, and public figure in emerging technology. He is Editor-at-Large of VRScout, Series Editor of Best American Experimental Writing, and CEO of Galatea, a screenwriting and project management tool for virtual reality (VR) stories. He covers VR, blockchain, AI, art, and media, with work in Adweek, Billboard, Entrepreneur, IndieWire, HuffPost, and Quartz. Jesse worked with Google in their initiative to develop educational content for the VR industry and was listed as a top global VR influencer in 2017 by Onalytica. Jesse holds an MFA in creative writing from University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently the Deputy Director of Emerging Technology at SNHU.

Dr. Wheeler Ruml, Professor of Computer Science at the University of New Hampshire, is co-founder of the International Symposium on Combinatorial Search, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a Senior Member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and a former Associate Editor of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research. His research papers have been cited more than 5,000 times. He received his PhD from Harvard in 2002. Before joining UNH, he led a team at Xerox's PARC lab that used AI planning techniques to build the world's fastest printer.