UMass Amherst Distinguished Faculty Lecture 2019, Professor Shlomo Zilberstein

Professor Shlomo Zilberstein from the College of Information and Computer Sciences at UMass Amherst presented his lecture: "AI Will Change Everything, But Not So Fast" on April 18, 2019 as part of the Distinguished Faculty Lecture series.

The field of artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing a golden age. Scientific breakthroughs and game-changing technologies are rapidly altering the way we live, work, communicate, and entertain. Investment in AI is booming. Meanwhile, success stories and inevitable failures fuel speculations about the aggregate impact of AI on society. In this talk, he gives an historical perspective on the development of AI, including the pattern of research leaps followed by exaggerated expectations. With today’s best AI methods, it is easy to create a grandmaster chess player, but replicating the common sense of a three-year-old child remains elusive. He examines these challenges using insights from his research on automated reasoning, autonomous driving, and human-in-the-loop AI. The ability to sustain progress and responsibly deploy AI technology depends on a far better understanding of how humans use common sense to handle ordinary situations that they encounter every day.


UMass Amherst, the flagship campus of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the largest public research university in New England, distinguished by the excellence and breadth of its academic, research and community programs. Founded in 1863 and home to nearly 30,000 total undergraduate and graduate students, UMass ranks no. 27 in a field of more than 700 public, four-year colleges across the nation, according to the U.S. News & World Report's latest annual college guide.

UMass Amherst stretches across more than 1,400 acres of land in the historic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, providing a rich cultural environment in a rural setting close to major urban centers - campus sits 90 miles from Boston and 175 miles from New York City. The idyllic college town of Amherst is home to hiking, biking, museums, music, theater, history, food, farms and much more. UMass Amherst also joins a local consortium of five nationally recognized colleges, including Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges.

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