̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Alan Turing

Preparing for the future: artificial intelligence and us

lw355 — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 09:00:13 +0000

AI systems are now used in everything from the trading of stocks to the setting of house prices; from detecting fraud to translating between languages; from creating our weekly shopping lists to predicting which movies we might enjoy.

This is just the beginning. Soon, AI will be used to advance our understanding of human health through analysis of large datasets, help us discover new drugs and personalise treatments. Self-driving vehicles will transform transportation and allow new paradigms in urban planning. Machines will run our homes more efficiently, make businesses more productive and help predict risks to society.

While some AI systems will outperform human intelligence to augment human decision making, others will carry out repetitive, manual and dangerous tasks to augment human labour. Many of the greatest challenges we face, from understanding and mitigating climate change to quickly identifying and containing disease outbreaks, will be aided by the tools of AI.

What we’ve seen of AI so far is only the leading edge of the revolution to come./system/files/issue_35_research_horizons_new.pdf

Yet the idea of creating machines that think and learn like humans has been around since the 1950s. Why is AI such a hot topic now? And what does Cambridge have to offer?

Three major advances are enabling huge progress in AI research: the availability of masses of data generated by all of us all the time; the power and processing speeds of today’s supercomputers; and the advances that have been made in mathematics and computer science to create sophisticated algorithms that help machines learn.

Unlike in the past when computers were programmed for specific tasks and domains, modern machine learning systems know nothing about the topic in question, they only know about learning: they use huge amounts of data about the world in order to learn from it and to make predictions about future behaviour. They can make sense of complex datasets that are difficult to use and have missing data.

That these advances will provide tremendous benefits is becoming clear. One strand of the UK government’s Industrial Strategy is to put the UK at the forefront of the AI and data revolution. In 2017, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers described AI as “the biggest commercial opportunity in today’s fast-changing economy”, predicting a 10% increase in the UK’s GDP by 2030 as a result of the applications of AI.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� is helping to drive this revolution – and to prepare for it.

Our computer scientists are designing systems that are cybersecure, model human reasoning, interact in affective ways with us, uniquely identify us by our face and give insights into our biological makeup.

Our engineers are building machines that are making decisions under uncertain conditions based on probabilistic estimation of perception and for the best course of action. And they’re building robots that can carry out a series of actions in the physical world – whether it’s for self-driving cars or for picking lettuces.

Our researchers in a multitude of different disciplines are creating innovative applications of AI in areas as diverse as discovering new drugs, overcoming phobias, helping to make police custody decisions and forecasting extreme weather events.

Our philosophers and humanists are asking fundamental questions about the ethics, trust and humanity of AI system design, and the effect that the language of discussion has on the public perception of AI. Together with the work of our engineers and computer scientists, these efforts aim to create AI systems that are trustworthy and transparent in their workings – that do what we want them to do.

All of this is happening in a university research environment and wider ecosystem of start-ups and large companies that facilitates innovative breakthroughs in AI. ̽��ֱ��aim of this truly interdisciplinary approach to research at Cambridge is to invent transformative AI technology that will benefit society at large.

However, transformative advances may carry negative consequences if we do not plan for them carefully on a societal level.

̽��ֱ��fundamental advances that underpin self-driving cars may allow dangerous new weapons on the battlefield. Technologies that automate work may result in livelihoods being eliminated. Algorithms trained on historical data may perpetuate, or even exacerbate, biases and inequalities such as sex- or race-based discrimination. Without careful planning, systems for which large amounts of personal data is essential, such as in healthcare, may undermine privacy.

Engaging with these challenges requires drawing on expertise not just from the sciences, but also from the arts, humanities and social sciences, and requires delving deeply into questions of policy and governance for AI. Cambridge has taken a leading position here too, with the recent establishment of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, as well as being one of the founding partners of ̽��ֱ��Alan Turing Institute based in London.

In the longer term, it is not outside the bounds of possibility that we might develop systems able to match or surpass human intelligence in the broader sense. There are some who think that this would change humanity’s place in the world irrevocably, while others look forward to the world a superintelligence might be able to co-create with us.

As the ̽��ֱ�� where the great mathematician Alan Turing was an undergraduate and fellow, it seems entirely fitting that Cambridge’s scholars are exploring questions of such significance to prepare us for the revolution to come. Turing once said: “we can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”

Inset image: read more about our AI research in the ̽��ֱ��'s research magazine; download a pdf; view on Issuu.

Dr Mateja Jamnik (Department of Computer Science and Technology), Dr Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh (Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, CFI), Dr Beth Singler (Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and CFI) and Dr Adrian Weller (Department of Engineering, CFI and ̽��ֱ��Alan Turing Institute).

Today we begin a month-long focus on research related to artificial intelligence. Here, four researchers reflect on the power of a technology to impact nearly every aspect of modern life – and why we need to be ready.

What we’ve seen of AI so far is only the leading edge of the revolution to come.

Mateja Jamnik, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Beth Singler and Adrian Weller

Jonathan Settle / ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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New understanding of how shape and form develop in nature

sc604 — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 18:01:07 +0000

Researchers have developed a new method for generating complex shapes, and have found that the development of form in nature can be driven by the physical properties of materials themselves, in contrast with earlier findings. ̽��ֱ��results, reported in the journal Nature, could enable the construction of complex structures from simple components, with potential applications in pharmaceuticals, paints, cosmetics and household products such as shampoo.

Using a simple set-up – essentially droplets of oil in a soapy water solution which were slowly frozen – the researchers found that recently-discovered ‘plastic crystal’ phases formed on the inside surfaces of the droplets causes them to shape-shift into a wide variety of forms, from octahedrons and hexagons to triangles and fibres.

Previous efforts to create such complex shapes and structures have used top-down processing methods, which allow a high degree of control, but are not efficient in terms of the amount of material used or the expensive equipment necessary to make the shapes. ̽��ֱ��new method, developed by researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Sofia ̽��ֱ�� in Bulgaria, uses a highly efficient, extremely simple bottom-up approach to create complex shapes.

“There are many ways that non-biological things take shape,” said Dr Stoyan Smoukov from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, who led the research. “But the question is what drives the process and how to control it – and what are the links between the process in the biological and the non-biological world?”

Smoukov’s research proposes a possible answer to the question of what drives this process, called morphogenesis. In animals, morphogenesis controls the distribution of cells during embryonic development, and can also be seen in mature animals, such as in a growing tumour.

In the 1950s, the codebreaker and mathematician Alan Turing proposed that morphogenesis is driven by reaction-diffusion, in which local chemical reactions cause a substance to spread through a space. More recent research, from Smoukov’s group and others, has proposed that it is physical properties of materials that control the process. This possibility had been anticipated by Turing, but it was impossible to determine using the computers of the time.

What this most recent research has found is that by slowly freezing oil droplets in a soapy solution, the droplets will shape-shift through a variety of different forms, and can shift back to their original shape if the solution is re-warmed. Further observation found that this process is driven by the self-assembly of a plastic crystal phase which forms beneath the surface of the droplets.

“Plastic crystals are a special state of matter that is like the alter ego of the liquid crystals used in many TV screens,” said Smoukov. Both liquid crystals and plastic crystals can be thought of as transitional stages between liquid and solid. While liquid crystals point their molecules in defined directions like a crystal, they have no long-range order and flow like a liquid. Plastic crystals are wax-like with long-range order in their molecular arrangement, but disorder in the orientation of each molecule. ̽��ֱ��orientational disorder makes plastic crystals highly deformable, and as they change shape, the droplets change shape along with them.

“This plastic crystal phase seems to be what’s causing the droplets to change shape, or break their symmetry,” said Smoukov. “And in order to understand morphogenesis, it’s vital that we understand what causes symmetry breaking.”

̽��ֱ��researchers found that by altering the size of the droplets they started with or the rate that the temperature of the soapy solution was lowered, they were able to control the sequence of the shapes the droplets ended up forming. This degree of control could be useful for multiple applications – from pharmaceuticals to household goods – that use small-droplet emulsions.

“ ̽��ֱ��plastic crystal phase has been of intense scientific interest recently, but no one so far has been able to harness it to exert forces or show this variety of shape-changes,” said the paper’s lead author Professor Nikolai Denkov of Sofia ̽��ֱ��, who first proposed the general explanation of the observed transformations.

“ ̽��ֱ��phenomenon is so rich in combining several active areas of research that this study may open up new avenues for research in soft matter and materials science,” said co-author Professor Slavka Tcholakova, also of Sofia ̽��ֱ��.

“If we’re going to build artificial structures with the same sort of control and complexity as biological systems, we need to develop efficient bottom-up processes to create building blocks of various shapes, which can then be used to make more complicated structures,” said Smoukov. “But it’s curious to observe such life-like behaviour in a non-living thing – in many cases, artificial objects can look more ‘alive’ than living ones.”

Inset image: Morphogenesis ( ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge).

Reference:
Denkov, Nikolai et. al. ‘Self-Shaping of Droplets via Formation of Intermediate Rotator Phases upon Cooling.’ Nature (2015). DOI: 10.1038/nature16189.

Researchers have identified a new mechanism that drives the development of form and structure, through the observation of artificial materials that shape-shift through a wide variety of forms which are as complex as those seen in nature.

It’s curious to observe such life-like behaviour in a non-living thing – in many cases, artificial objects can look more ‘alive’ than living ones

Stoyan Smoukov

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Morphogenesis

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Marking the centenary of Turing's birth

bjb42 — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 08:00:24 +0000

Alan Turing was a mathematician, cryptographer and pioneer of computer science who possessed one of the greatest brains of the 20th century. His life was one of secret triumphs shadowed by public tragedy.

Perhaps best known today for his part in breaking the German Enigma code during World War II, Turing was by that time already established as a mathematician of extraordinary capability.

During his time at King’s College, Cambridge, he conceived of the ‘Turing Machine’ - a universal machine which could imitate all possible calculating devices. This mathematical model went on to become one of the cornerstones of computer science, and is arguably the most influential mathematical abstraction of the 20^th Century. Turing was 22 years old.

“Turing’s centenary year is a very special year for me, and other mathematicians like me,” said Dr James Grime from the ̽��ֱ��’s Millenium Maths Project, who regularly tours schools with an original ‘Enigma’ machine.

“In its purest form, mathematics is the search for truth, and Turing was one of the most important contributors to this search. It’s fantastic that his life is being celebrated.”

Grime has presented a short film produced by the ̽��ֱ�� on the life and work of Turing for the ̽��ֱ��'s YouTube and Vimeo channels. ̽��ֱ��film uses some of the photographs and documents that his family gave to King's College. ̽��ֱ��Turing family have continued to donate documents to the King's Archive Centre, and you can see many of these online at the Turing Digital Archive.

At 3.30pm on the afternoon of the centenary day, Saturday 23 June, the Mayor of Cambridge - Councillor Sheila Stuart - will unveil a Blue Plaque to commemorate Alan Turing on the grass in front of King’s College. ̽��ֱ��event will be streamed live on the internet on the King’s College website here.

A major centenary conference looking at Turing’s impact on mathematics, computing, philosophy and beyond is currently taking place in Cambridge - where the first issue of a new interdisciplinary journal called "Computability" has been presented. Inspired directly by Turing and his work, the journal aims to capture the spirit of Turing through the combination of theoretical insight and practical application that is the mark of Turing's work.

More information on the conference here

More information on the journal here

Born in London on 23 June 1912, Turing spent his childhood in Hastings in Kent and Sherbourne in Dorset. He displayed a precocious talent at school for maths and science, including condensing Einstein’s theory of relativity for his mum at the age of just 15. Turing’s abilities led to him receive a scholarship to King’s College.

He famously went on to make a vital contribution to the code-breakers at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Not only did he make the first breakthroughs with the Naval Enigma code, allowing Britain’s food and supplies to be shipped across the Atlantic, but, along with Gordon Welchman, he designed the machine - called the Bombe - which smashed the German Enigma code.

In 1945 Turing received an OBE for services to the Foreign Office, although the real reason for this honour remained top secret for another 30 years, long past Turing’s death. Many historians today believe that the work of the code-breakers shortened the war by two years.

In September 2009, the British government made a public apology to Alan Turing - who was gay at a time when it was illegal in Britain. When authorities discovered the truth about his sexuality, he was sentenced to endure horrific hormone treatment to avoid imprisonment, labelled a security risk and forced from his job as a code breaker.

Turing committed suicide in 1954 by biting from an apple laced with cyanide, a desperately sad end to the life of a genius whose astonishing contribution to the war effort remained unknown until the 1970s.

Saturday 23 June marks the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing - mathematical genius, hero of the WWII code breakers of Bletchley Park, and father of modern computing. To celebrate, a short film has been produced by the ̽��ֱ��. A blue plaque has been unveiled on the front of King’s College - where Turing was both a student and then a fellow.

Turing’s centenary year is a very special year for me, and other mathematicians like me.

James Grime

Alan Turing - Celebrating the life of a genius

King's College

Alan Turing aged 16

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