IIIM News

News about the institution, its research & recent advances

IIIM Director Quoted in ‘University World News’

A recent article by Jan Petter Myklebust explains how ChatGPT is having an effect on university teaching and evaluation. The article, published on March 4, 2023, titled “Universities adjust to ChatGPT, but the ‘real AI’ lies ahead,” quotes IIIM’s Director and Founder Dr. Kristinn R. Thórisson in the heading. Thórisson suggests that while technologies like ChatGPT are rather far from real intelligence, it provides the world with some good exercise in what may lay ahead in the coming years and decades of AI research.

The article covers academic developments related to AI in Norway, Finnland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland. According to the article’s author, the Technical University of Denmark has officially banned the use of artificial intelligence in their exams, while Professor Philip John Binning, the university’s dean of graduate studies and international affairs, says that the institution does not have a good recipe to handle the issue. He considers technologies like ChatGPT as “contributing to the creation of a new reality,” comparing its impact to the advent of the Internet.

Dr. Thórisson, who has worked for 30 years on artificial general intelligence projects, applied AI projects, in both academia and industry, predicts that over the next 3 decades new methodologies will take over those based on artificial neural networks (which, despite the name, have very little to do with the ‘real’ neural networks found in nature), resulting in significant advances for automation, creating more trustworthy methods for achieving all sorts of control that will transform numerous industries and social arenas.

IIIM Scientist Featured in Deutsche Welle’s Series “Techtopia”

In a newly released episode of Deutsche Welle’s (“Germany’s BBC”) Techtopia series (free to view on YouTube), the focus is on artificial general intelligence. The episode features professor of computer science at Reykjavik University and Managing Director of the Icelandic Institute for Intelligent Machines Dr. Kristinn R. Thórisson. The program, written and directed by DW Chief Technology Correspondent Janosch Delcker, presents Dr. Thórisson’s trajectory from a 12-year old interested in robots and computers to a leading expert and researcher in artificial general intelligence. The episode’s introduction, narrated by creator Delcker, states: “They call it the ‘holy grail of artificial intelligence’: […] Building a computer that can do everything we can, or even more. Some believe that could cure all types of cancer, eradicate poverty, and create a more equal society. But other warn that such a system could turn against us, and become a threat to our very existence. So, where does work on artificial general intelligence stand … ?” 

– RT

IIIM & Reykjavik University Awarded European Research Council Grant

The Icelandic Institute for Intelligent Machines and Dr. Inga Dóra Sigfúsdóttir, professor at Reykjavik University in Iceland and Columbia University in New York City, have been awarded a research grant from the European Research Council to develop a simulation of bio-psycho-social factors related to teen substance abuse. The “proof-of-concept” project will employ next-generation simulation and modeling techniques to create a hierarchical computer model that can be used for evaluation of prevention programs, educating councilors, posing complex what-if questions, and evaluate the effectiveness of preventative measures taken by municipalities, cities, and nation states Continue reading IIIM & Reykjavik University Awarded European Research Council Grant

Computer Weekly: “IIIM Could Revolutionize AI”

In a recent article that appeared in Computer Weekly, IIIM is put at the forefront of the AI revolution with the catchy headline “Icelandic Research Could Revolutionise AI”. Reporter Pat Barnes continues, “The new approach [to AI], led by Kristinn Thórisson, director of IIIM and a professor at Reykjavik University, differs from existing approaches to AI [… It relies …] on self-supervised learning [… and …]  a form of ‘reasoning’ – where the system autonomously generates hypotheses and tests them.” 

Funded in part by CISCO Systems in San Francisco, the research builds on earlier work also lead by Kristinn R. Thórisson, then at the Reykjavik University AI lab CADIA, under a 2M Euro research grant Continue reading Computer Weekly: “IIIM Could Revolutionize AI”