AI: Learning to Think

March 1, 2017April 18, 2018 maxversace 0 Comments AI, emotions, state festival berlin

Robots and computers have so far been conceived to perform punctual tasks and exercises in order to help humans with their daily tasks. What would happen if we managed to incorporate learning capabilities into the way they operate? Current biologically-inspired neural models resemble, to a certain extent, the way toddlers learn to perform tasks in the early stages of childhood development. Based on this, Max Versace has designed and developed neuromorphic software to allow smarter machines to become autonomous and adapt to unexpected challenges in many fields of interest. The impact of such sophisticated robots will be considered by Toby Walsh whose research focuses on how optimisation, social choice and game theory interact with artificial intelligence.

Raphaël Holca-Lamarre, Researcher at Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience

Max Versace, CEO, Neurala Inc. and Director of BU Neuromorphics Lab

Toby Walsh, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at UNSW

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I am the co-founder and CEO of Neurala Inc., a Boston-based company building Artificial Intelligence emulating brain function in software. Neurala’s deep learning tech makes robots, drones, cars, consumer electronics, toys and smart devices more useful, engaging and autonomous. Neurala stems out of 10 years of research at Boston University Neuromorphics Lab, where as AI Professor I have pioneered the research and fielding of brain-inspired (also called Deep Learning, or Artificial Neural Networks) algorithms that allow robots and drones to perceive, navigate, interact and learn real-time in complex environments.

Over my academic and industrial career, I have lectured and spoken at dozens of events and venues, including TEDx, keynote at Mobile World Congress Drone Summit, NASA, the Pentagon, GTC, InterDrone, Los Alamo National Lab, GE, Air Force Research Labs, HP, iRobot, Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, Huawei, Ericsson, BAE Systems, AI World, Mitsubishi, ABB and Accenture, among many others.

My work has been featured in TIME, IEEE Spectrum, Fortune, CNBC, The Boston Globe, Xconomy, The Chicago Tribune, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Nasdaq, Associated Press and many other media.

Career and company awards include: CB Insights 100 Most Promising AI Companies, Draper Venture Network Most Innovative Company, Disruptor Daily 100 Most Disruptive Companies, Edison Award Best New Product in Social Innovation.

I am a Fulbright scholar, hold several patents and two Ph.Ds: Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University; Experimental Psychology, University of Trieste, Italy.