I am honored to have given a keynote talk at the AI Startups Conference in San Francisco on May 25th, 2016. My talk is titled “A Cognitive Architectural Map of AI Startup Ideas.”
Talk Abstract: When you are thinking of what new type of AI algorithm will bring a greater range of human assistance, it helps to have a map of which types of human cognition have already been proposed as theories, engineered, implemented, and tested. Many researchers and practitioners in the field of AI specialize in one or two or three primary areas of focus, while not thinking as much about the various other related fields of study that as a whole, comprise human understanding of human cognition. Seeing the distribution of research in the cognitive sciences as a whole gives us an interesting view of what problems currently require solutions. For example, medicine is a strong human need so we are not surprised to see cognitive sciences related to medical disorders highly represented. Medicine may be the path to immortality, so might as well invest now. I think of Artificial Intelligence as a field that develops computational understanding of perceiving, thinking, learning, acting and associated processes. Where can the next intelligence boost come from? This is the age old question for any start-up: what will be the next great technology boom and how do we get out ahead of it? Humans exhibit a wide range of intelligences that are ripe for computational modelling.
Author: Bo Morgan
Bo Morgan currently is founder, CEO and full-time volunteer at Brain Computer Enterprises, Cooperative Inc., where he designs, manufactures and sells FOSH (Free Open Source Hardware) accessibility and medical solutions for blind and other people. He previously worked at Apple as an Artificial Intelligence Project Lead. Bo previously worked at DreamWorks Animation, developing Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. Bo worked at AIBrain, Inc., a local Palo Alto AI startup company, managing and developing cognitive conversational smartphone robot toys for children that exercise SEL development. While at AIBrain, Bo worked closely with UCSF medical and educational neuroscientists designing and implementing fMRI experiments for measuring the BOLD (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent) signature of SEL-related brain regions while children interacted with our application. Bo received his PhD from the MIT Media Lab, where he studied the upper three layers of Marvin Minsky’s cognitive architectural theory of mind. The layers are the (1) built-in reactive, (2) learned reactive, (3) deliberative, (4) reflective, (5) self-reflective, and (6) self-consciously reflective layers. Bo focused on the 4th, 5th, and 6th layers in his theorizing and final implementation, demonstration, and evaluation of his PhD, a reflective learning AI system. Bo also received his Master of Science (MS) in Media Arts and Sciences and his Bachelor of Science (BS) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.