Requirements Specifications for AI Systems

The fifth CRISP online seminar
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 -
16:00 - 17:30

Professor David Robertson will deliver the fifth CRISP online seminar on Wednesday 13th May 2024 starting at 4pm/1600 hrs UK time on MS Teams. The seminar is entitled 'Requirements Specifications for AI Systems'.  To join the seminar, all you need to do is click the 'join the seminar' link below. The link will become live 15 minutes before the start time of 4pm/1600 hrs. 

Abstract

Regulation of AI has become a national and global issue.  The speed of progress, particularly in inductive systems, has spurred governments into action (with continued pressure to introduce regulation).  Governments are drafting policy and guidance, and we can look forward to robust debate on ethics and hazards of emerging technologies.  However, for people assembling systems with AI components, there is very little advice on the sort of requirements specification that might support a case for procurement and deployment of a complex, AI-based system.  I will discuss (broadly) the scope for formal requirements specification in this area, as an overlay to conventional requirements specification, and discuss the relationship between this and informal requirements specification.

Biography

David Robertson is Chair of Applied Logic at the University of Edinburgh.  He was Head of College of Science & Engineering at Edinburgh.  Prior to this he was Head of School of Informatics at Edinburgh, which is the largest UK computing science department in the UK in terms of research power. His computing research is on Artificial Intelligence, specialising in formal methods for coordination and knowledge sharing between (human/artificial) agents in distributed systems where a high degree of autonomy is expected in the components of the underlying system.  This is one of the enablers for AI at large scale. Methods from his group have been applied to astronomy, simulation of consumer behaviour, emergency response and healthcare. He was a member of the Farr Institute for medical data sharing and was co-director of the Centre for Medical Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently co-director of the Scottish node for Health Data Research UK (the UK's national institute for health data science) and also a Scientific Advisor for Huawei in the UK.  He chaired the executive of the UK Computing Research Committee (the expert panel of the British Computer Society and the Institution of Engineering and Technology) and has served on strategic advisory groups for the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Medical Research Council and Innovate UK. He was a member of the governance board for the Scottish Innovation Centre in Data Science and he was on the supervisory board for EIT Digital (Europe's largest digital innovation ecosystem).

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