Profile

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My research interests include:

  • Cyber Security of AI
  • AI & Technology Ethics
  • AI & Quantum Technology
  • Agent Programming
  • Intelligent Health-Care Support
  • Modelling of Biological Systems and Processes
  • Resource and Location Concepts in Logics
  • Concurrency Theory
  • (Object) Petri Nets
  • Formal Methods

I am Chair of the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) and Wales Regional Co-Lead of the DEMON network for the application of data science and AI to dementia research. Furthermore, I am a member of the advisory board of the International Artificial Intelligence & Quantum Technology Foundation (INAIQT) and of the international journal Connection Science published by Taylor and Francis.

I organised an international workshop series on Logics, Agents, and Mobility (LAM):

Following four successful LAM workshops at Hamburg in 2008, Los Angeles in 2009, Edinburgh in 2010, Aachen in 2011, for the fifth edition LAM returned to Hamburg  as a satellite workshop of Petri Nets 2012. The last of the series, LAM’13, was a by-invitation-only symposium.

AI on the Big Screen

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Finally. After years and years of seeing AIs going rogue, we now have the pleasure of experiencing a “good AI” in a new film by Shawn Levy based on a story by Matt Lieberman and playing in cinemas right now. The AI I’m talking about is that of the NPC called Guy, a bank teller in Free City. He is good natured (if you can even say that of an AGI) and makes the virtual world he’s acting in a better place. I’m not going to review the film here, but cannot but express my joy at seeing an AI on the big screen doing good things.

Don’t get me wrong, this is far from a realistic portrayal of current AI capabilities. The film is not meant to educate about AI but to entertain. However, seeing something that uses AI for the “greater good” on the big screen is a first step to a more balanced public view of what this technology has to offer for society. It is clear that the onus is on the AI developer to use the technology responsibly … and I don’t want to even think about what it could have meant for the poor people of Free City if Antwan had had the technological skills to modify the AI for his purposes.

AISB21 (online)

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The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) will host it’s annual convention from 7-9 April. The daily schedule is now available to view and download: https://aisb20.wordpress.com/2021/02/13/schedule-2/

The event includes more than 50 individual presentations, as well as panel sessions and discussions, show-and-tell demonstrations, plus plenary lectures.

The convention is free to all AISB members without registration. For information about AISB membership, click ‘join AISB’ on https://aisb.org.uk

Our plenary lectures are as follows:

Wednesday 7 April
Prof Sophie Scott
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London
‘The science of laughter’

Thursday 8 April
Prof Peter Robinson
Professor of Computer Technology, University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
‘Computation of emotions’

Friday 9 April
Dr Sabine Hauert
Associate Professor in Robotics, Robotics Laboratory, University of Bristol
‘Swarms for people’

You can find more information about these and the other talks here: https://aisb20.wordpress.com/2021/02/13/schedule-2/

IMAI roundtable Cybersecurity, COV-19 and the impact of AI

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Using AI to accelerate the Cyber Security industry and the support the IMAI initiative can offer.

This event explored How COV-19 has impacted the Cybersecurity Industry, and questioned how AI has alleviated any of that impact – including a panel discussion with contributors from experts and innovation in this area.

Contributors include:

Dr (Berndt) Bertie Müller – Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at Swansea University
Dr Budgie Dhanda – Co-Chair at UK Cyber Security Council Formation Project
Kiran Bhagotra – Founder, ProtectBox
Prof. Pete Burnap – Professor of Data Science & Cybersecurity at Cardiff University
Rob Newby – Founder, Procordr


The Office for Artificial Intelligence hosted this Roundtable, providing a forum for questions and feedback towards policy.

The Future of AI in Customer Service

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I took part in a roundtable discussion on the future of AI moderated by Peter Dorrington (XMplify). The topics covered were:

The current state of AI in Customer Service
– The importance of empathy in customer service and the role of AI
– What the future holds for AI, and
– What we should be thinking about today, ahead of an AI-enabled tomorrow.

Joining me were:
– Dr Fatmah Boathman – Founder & Board President, Artificial Intelligence Society of Saudi Arabia
– Amanda Halpin – Solution Lead for Digital AI in Genesys

Alan Bundy receives the 2020 EurAI Distinguished Service Award

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AISB Fellow Prof Alan Bundy  will receive this year’s EurAI Distinguished Service Award. This award is presented every two years to a person having contributed significantly to the advancement of AI. Nominations have to be supported by a EurAI member society such as AISB. We are very happy that our nomination was supported by EurAI leading to this remarkable award being presented to Alan Bundy.

The award will be officially announced during the opening ceremony of ECAI 2020 on Sunday, 30 August 2020 and Alan will also be honoured at both the Fellows lunch and the EurAI General Assembly.

Alan.Bundy_.Photo_-768x768.jpg

Alan Bundy is Professor of Automated Reasoning in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include: the automation of mathematical reasoning, with applications to reasoning about the correctness of computer software and hardware; and the automatic construction, analysis and evolution of representations of knowledge. His research combines artificial intelligence with theoretical computer science and applies this to practical problems in the development and maintenance of computing systems. He is the author of over 300 publications and has held over 60 research grants.

He is a fellow of several academic societies, including the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Association for Computing Machinery, and the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB). His awards include the IJCAI Research Excellence Award (2007), the CADE Herbrand Award (2007) and a CBE (2012). He was: Edinburgh’s founding Head of Informatics (1998-2001); founding Convener of UKCRC (2000-05); and a Vice President and Trustee of the British Computer Society with special responsibility for the Academy of Computing (2010-12). He was also a member of: the Hewlett-Packard Research Board (1989-91); the ITEC Foresight Panel (1994-96); both the 2001 and 2008 Computer Science RAE panels (1999-2001, 2005-8); and the Scottish Science Advisory Council (2008-12).

Tracking Covid-19 effectively rests on transparency

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With a pandemic like Covid-19 currently affecting people worldwide, the question arises of how technology might be able to help contain the virus, help people recover, and help the economy rebound after lockdown. Finding the technology is easy. How we use the tools at our disposal responsibly and ethically is thorny and complex.

 

Read the full article on the techerati blog.