The Artificial Intelligence Revolution and Why?

Hadi Larijani, Professor of Computer Networks and Intelligent Systems in the University's Department of Computing, will deliver his inaugural Professorial Lecture on March 26.

In his lecture, Professor Larijani will help the audience make sense of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by explaining how we use it in everyday life and what the future looks like.

He will also reveal how his AI research at GCU is helping to change people's lives for the better – not just here in Scotland – but in developing countries like Rwanda, as part of the University's Common Good goals.

Professor Larijani said: "In my lecture I want to demystify Artificial Intelligence (AI) because a lot of people don't know what it is and might be anxious or worried about it.

"I will look at the positive side of it and how it's impacting our lives. I think the future is bright as long as we are able to have safety incorporated in how we use AI.

"AI has been around for years, it's nothing new, but the difference is that in the last 10 years we've had a very good speed increase in central processing units (CPUs) and specifically graphical processing units (GPU) – the brains of the computers - and computers and the costs have reduced considerably. The second main development is availability of vast amounts of data.

"One of the most important areas in AI is artificial neural network (ANN), an interconnected group of nodes, similar to the vast network of neurons in a brain. 

"Most people use AI but don't even know it. It has been used very successfully in the last couple of years for example in voice recognition, Google maps, Siri and Google Assistant.

"Most people are not aware of the huge benefits to AI such as in internet fraud detection. If your bank sees that out of the blue you've spent £1,000 on something you would never usually do, AIs will flag that up and then your bank can try to stop the transaction.

"AIs can improve your quality of life and your health. Just one example is that AIs can help the speedy recognition of cancerous cells in your brain. The AI will flag it up quicker with the less probability of error."