Local news crew turns to Gonzaga for thoughts on AI

de palma besmer
Besmer and De Palma sit for an interview in Herak.
April 30, 2019
School of Engineering & Applied Science

Should Americans be afraid of Artificial Intelligence? 

Kierra Elfalan of KREM-TV visited Gonzaga recently to pose that question to Dr. Paul De Palma, a computer science professor specializing in machine learning, and Dr. Kirk Besmer, a philosophy professor who leads discussions on AI. They also interviewed a pair of students on campus.

"It depends on how it's used, how it's controlled," De Palma is quoted in the short piece that ran the morning of April 30. "I find facial recognition software disturbing, but only because of how it might be used. If [the way data is collected is] democratically controlled that's one thing, if it's controlled by five monopolies and a bunch of tech billionaires in Silicon Valley, yes indeed, it's deeply frightening." 

The video is available on KREM's website (link opens new window).

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