The development of Artificial Intelligence is accelerating in recent years due to the vast increment in computing power and available data. One hypothesis says we may achieve superintelligence by the end of this century, while others say this may never happen. Although this debate is fascinating, it is important to look at the risks and rewards of AI more objectively just like any other engineering disciplines. In this talk we will examine various aspects of development, potential risks, the ethics, and the social impacts of AI.
David Y. Fong, Ph.D. is Senior Vice President of CITS Group, Inc., a consulting firm focusing on technology advisory and expert consulting in IT and environment areas in the US and China. He is also Founder and President of Forte Connections, Inc., a solution provider of Enterprise Application Software.
Dr. Fong graduated from the Electrical Engineering Department, National Taiwan University, and obtained his Master's and Ph.D. degrees from University of Cincinnati, Ohio, both in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He taught at Clarkson University, New York, after receiving his Ph.D. degree, and conducted research and directed graduate studies in the image processing, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence areas. Afterwards he went into the high-tech industry, working in Lockheed, an advanced aerospace company in the Silicon Valley, and doing research in the automatic recognition of aerial photographs. In the early 1990's, Dr. Fong joined Photon Dynamics, a start-up company, as a project manager, leading a technical team in completing the prototype of a capital equipment for the testing of LCD flat panel displays using image processing and pattern recognition technologies. Subsequently, he entered the semiconductor industry, undertaking the technical and management tasks of developing semiconductor test equipment for KLA-Tencor, again using imaging technologies.
In the late 1990's he left the semiconductor industry, and assumed the position of Vice President of e-Commerce Technology, Inc., and was in charge of the business and technical developments of Internet and e-Commerce software. Early 2002, Dr. Fong started Forte Connections, providing customers with enterprise information website, e-commerce, e-government, and business automation software and customized total solutions.
Dr. Fong has more than thirty years of experience in technology development and management. His technical expertise includes digital image processing, pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, display technologies, and software development methodologies. In the management side, he is familiar with business development, engineering management, software development, application engineering, and professional training.
Dr. Fong is very active in the Chinese-American engineering community. He has been with the Chinese Institute of Engineers, USA (CIE/USA) for over 20 years. He was President of CIE/USA San Francisco Chapter in 2000 and 2003, Chairman of the Board in 2001, 2004 and 2014. He was US Chair of 2006 Modern Engineering and Technology Seminars (METS) held in Taipei, and US Chair of 2012 Sino-American Technology and Engineering Conference (SATEC) held in Beijing. Dr. Fong is also interested in the performing arts. He conducts the Ching Ching Chorus and the National Taiwan University Alumni Chorus in Silicon Valley, and founded Dimension Performing Arts, promoting fine Chinese performing arts to the US audience. He received CIE's Technology and Humanities Award in 2010 for his contribution in both arts and technology, and Chinese government's State Friendship Award in 2012, for his contribution to international technology exchanges and collaboration.