When: Friday April 5. – noon-1 p.m.
Where: Bliss 190
This talk delves into the transformative potential of generative AI and foundation models in both scientific research and higher education. Foundation models represent a seismic shift in AI capabilities, empowering researchers to analyze data, generate hypotheses, and uncover knowledge with unprecedented efficiency. Trained on vast amounts of unlabeled data, foundation models can serve as a powerful starting point for tackling a wide range of language and vision problems. By harnessing the power of these models, researchers can unlock new frontiers in interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation, and breakthrough discoveries. Moreover, this talk explores how generative AI is reshaping undergraduate and graduate education, presenting significant opportunities and challenges. Universities must quickly adapt to prepare students to work alongside intelligent machines and drive responsible AI innovation.
Marco Alvarez is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at URI.