Public Keynote - AI for Science, AI for Society: Two sides of the same coin?
The recording of the public keynote is now available at the ETH Video Portal:
For the conclusion of the symposium, we invite the general audience to a special public keynote given by Prof. and President Emeritus Martin Vetterli titled «AI for Science, AI for Society: Two sides of the same coin?».
The keynote by Martin Vetterli is open to the public and free of charge. However, registration is required.
About Martin Vetterli:
Professor and President Emeritus Martin Vetterli
Full Professor of Audiovisual Communications Laboratory
EPFL
Martin Vetterli received a Dipl.Ing degree from ETHZ in 1981, an MS from Stanford in 1982, and a Doctorate from EPFL in 1986. He has held faculty positions at Columbia University and UC Berkeley before joining EPFL as a Professor in 1995. At EPFL, he was Vice President from 2004 to 2011, and served as Dean of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences in 2011 - 2012. From 2013 to 2016, he was President of the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation. He was President of EPFL from 2017 to 2024. His research is in the areas of electrical engineering, computer sciences and applied mathematics. He is the co-author of three textbooks, and numerous papers and patents and has received a number of awards for his research. He is a fellow of IEEE and ACM and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.
More information: external page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Vetterli
Keynote summary:
Machine learning, or artificial intelligence, has made amazing progress in recent years, due to three parallel developments, namely (i) vast amounts of open data, (ii) large increase in compute power (especially in forms of specialized chips or GPUs) and (iii) algorithmic advances based on decades of research. The watershed moment happened with the release of large language models (LLMs) like chatGPT with user interfaces for the general public.
A couple of years on is a good moment to reflect on the impact of AI on science practice, education, and society. To do so, Martin Vetterli will review the history of AI and its various ups and downs. He will look at the state of play of AI for science and its large potential for making scientific discovery more efficient, if explainability follows. Next, the impact of AI on education is certainly another key issue. Finally, how AI can be used to benefit society as a whole is a fundamental challenge, and Martin Vetterli will discuss the alignment problem between human values and AI.
In conclusion, as for any technological advance, AI can be used for the best or the worst, and it is for society to decide between the two. The fact that AI is a generic technology based on data from all fields of human activity makes it all the more important to keep a careful and democratic watch on its development.
Date and time:
Wednesday, June 4, 2025, 16:00 - 17:00 (CEST)
Recording:
The recording of the public keynote is now available at the ETH Video Portal:
https://video.ethz.ch/events/2025/exclaim.html