AI savants at Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory join hands to exchange ideas and collaborate on research.
Stony Brook, NY, May 7, 2024 - On Tuesday, a group of renowned academic and industry researchers convened at Stony Brook University’s Charles Wang Center to discuss the latest AI research and collaborate on ongoing projects.
Attended by over a hundred scientists and students, the symposium showcased expert talks on novel AI research for a variety of applications — from designing stunning homes and dubbing movies to detecting breast cancer and depression, and measuring someone’s expertise in a subject. The conference also focused heavily on data security and privacy.
Speakers shared revealing insights as the day progressed:
Dimitris Samaras, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor and Director of the Computer Vision Lab at the Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University, shared his team’s work in Computer Vision, talking about creating 3D avatars for AR/VR applications, and using AI to detect lip movements in a video, so it could automatically be dubbed in other languages.
Nathan Urban, Group Leader of Applied Mathematics at BNL, talked about how AI can be used to search for novel molecules with desired properties, for applications in several industries, including material and drug design.
Professor Dima Kozakov of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at SBU talked about how AI is being used for detecting cell formation to predict the onset of various diseases, like breast cancer, Alzheimer's, stomach infections, and newer strains of coronavirus.
Carlos Soto, Associate Computational Scientist of the Machine Learning Group at BNL, talked about how, because conversational AI models like ChatGPT are trained on incredible amounts of data, there is potential for data leakage, which, if not encrypted, can endanger the model’s security. He also discussed how AI pseudo-memorizes data and how, because it was trained by humans, it responds in similar ways, convincing us that it has a personality — an effect that intensifies when AI begins to hallucinate and make unpredictable claims.
Lastly, Professor Andrew Schwartz of the Department of Computer Science at SBU discussed his team’s latest work on using AI to study millions of Facebook posts to predict if someone was depressed or happy.
The annual event sparked several questions and group discussions, allowing speakers and participants to interact, share ideas and solutions, and chart the way forward for AI and its applications across industries.
Director Skiena of the AI Institute at Stony Brook said, “It was exciting to see all the applications of AI at BNL, and the collaborations which have been formed with AI Institute’s faculty at Stony Brook to augment the capabilities of these intelligent tools.”
Communications Assistant
Ankita Nagpal