Bowman Lecture 2024 - How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of AI
Chris Wiggins (Chief Data Scientist, New York Times)
Thursday 29th August 18:30-19:30 Sir Charles Wilson Lecture Theatre
Abstract
The Bowman Lecture 2024
How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of AI
Speaker: Chris Wiggins, Chief Data Scientist, New York Times
Date/Time: Thursday, 29th August 2024, 6:30pm
Location: Sir Charles Wilson Building, The University of Glasgow
To attend in-person, please register at: https://bowman-lecture-2024.eventbrite.co.uk
We live in a world where data, in multifarious forms, play increasingly prominent roles in everyday life. In particular, there is now considerable public discussion of how the advent of AI, powered by the widespread availability of data, may affect our lives in the future. This talk will reflect on how we have arrived here by considering the history of data and its uses, using a wide range of examples including early government censuses, scientific studies and the advent of powerful internet search engines. It will also include reflection on the political and ethical impacts of data, as an important part of the public discussion on how best to harness the powerful data-driven tools which are emerging.
Chris Wiggins is the Chief Data Scientist at the New York Times, where he has extensive experience of developing and implementing data-driven methods. He is also an Associate Professor at Columbia University where he is a senior member of the Data Science Institute. In addition to his many scientific and technical publications, he is an author, with Matthew Jones, of a recent book on "How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms”.
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