The movies we’ve grown up watching have made quite the impression on our lives and how we think about AI. 

From the exciting prospect of flying cars in Back to the Future, to the grim post-apocalyptic landscape of Mad Max. What’s closer to the truth in our near future? For instance, we’ve recently seen ABBA launch a ‘hologram’ tour and Mark Zuckerberg enter the metaverse. 

What else can we expect from the coming decade and how might these technologies evolve to become seamless in our lives? 

TOPICS WE DISCUSS INCLUDE
●	How movies like ‘The Matrix’ and Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’ were incredibly prescient when considering our future interactions with machines.
●	How TV shows like ‘Black Mirror’ identify potential negative and positive aspects of AI, sounding a warning before the technology is actually made.
●	How the Adapt Centre is involved in Digitally Enhanced Engagement that’s bringing about a revolution in AI.
●	The work at the Adapt Centre aimed at improving user experiences by focusing on human centric AI.
●	How personalising proactive agents to model users appropriately could allow them to represent us in real life.
●	The need for designers to be discerning consumers of the data they gather to create AI.
 
GUEST DETAILS
Owen Conlan is a full Professor in the School of Computer Science and Statistics. He is an internationally recognised researcher and thought leader in the field of Personalised Visualisation. 

Prof Conlan has authored 180+ peer-reviewed and high impact publications and has a h-index of 27. His most significant research contributions are the multi-model, metadata driven approach to personalisation, the non-invasive approach to personalisation, and the automated construction of personalised visualisations (which underpins several industry collaborations).

Ben Cowan is Associate Professor at UCD’s School of Information and Communication Studies; and Funded Investigator within the Adapt Centre. He specialises in voice UX and Conversational User Interfaces. He has published over 70 academic research papers on topics related to voice user interfaces, communication and cognitive psychology. 

His research lies at the juncture between psychology, human-computer interaction and communication systems in investigating how design impacts aspects of user behaviour in social, collaborative and communicative technology interactions.

https://www.adaptcentre.ie/experts/owen-conlan/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/owen-conlan-49a82b13/

https://www.adaptcentre.ie/experts/benjamin-cowan/ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-cowan-ba098515/

AdaptCentre.ie

Owen Conlan and Ben Cowan: AI and SciFi

The pace of change in AI is beyond rapid and it's an exciting time for research in Ireland. 

Professor John Keller is now leading the way in research as the new director of ADAPT, the SFI Research Center for AI Driven Digital Content Technology. 

Today we hear about John’s ambitions in his new appointment including his thoughts on current developments in AI, how he plans to lead ADAPT and prepare for the future and why supporting multidisciplinary research will be a key focus for the centre.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

●	Keeping up with the pace of AI as it enters the mainstream
●	SignON: Making AI accessible 
●	ADAPT’s role in mitigating the harms of AI 
●	Integrating multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research
●	Mentoring and resourcing new researchers and culture 
●	Preparing for future challenges across different industries 

GUEST DETAILS

Prof John D. Kelleher is the newly appointed director of the ADAPT Centre and Chair of Artificial Intelligence at Trinity College, Dublin. John’s core research expertise is in the areas machine/deep learning and natural language processing. Previously, he was the TU Dublin lead in the ADAPT centre and the scientific lead for the Digital Content Transformation Strand. 

Within the ADAPT Centre he leads research projects on language modelling, lexical semantics, machine translation, novelty detection, image captioning, dialog systems, and making AI more environmentally sustainable. 

John has been the academic lead on numerous industry projects across a range of topics and domains, including: anomaly detection, transfer learning, customer segmentation and propensity modelling, dialog systems and chat bots, and information retrieval and natural language processing.

MORE INFORMATION

Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre
For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie/ 

QUOTES

The impact and penetration of AI into people's lives means that there's so much interest from industry in artificial intelligence, and that's really driving the pace. - John Kelleher 

When these types of technologies are prevalent throughout society it's important that the people in that society understand what they are and how they work. - John Kelleher 

The most important aspect, or the foundations we need to build in order for interdisciplinary research to flourish, is that we can communicate across disciplines. So we need to spend time with each other as researchers, understanding each other's language. And at the core of that is a willingness to listen. - John Kelleher 

Exciting things often happen at the margins, between disciplines, for people to come together in a complementary team, where they have complementary expertise. And so once you can build a bridge across the discipline, then you can do really exciting work. - John Kelleher 

Fluency in and of itself isn't the sign of intelligence that we thought it was before. And that's why maybe we need more emphasis on creativity and critical thinking within education. - John Kelleher

KEYWORDS
#ai #adapt #research #technology #artificialintelligence #culture #languagemodels #accessibility

ADAPT Radio

A New Direction with Prof John Kelleher

How many times have you gone to the doctor and then on the way home from the appointment, realized there were things that you forgot to ask about?

Today, we hear about an AI-powered platform that helps patients record questions and quality-of-life issues ahead of time to support more effective consultations. Currently being trialled with cancer patients, we hear how the system integrates with electronic health records, improves patient engagement, and has the potential to cut clinician workload in half. 

Our guest is a seasoned expert in digitising patient care with over 25 years of experience in clinical and research settings. We’re delighted to welcome CEO of eAltra, Denis Roche.

THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT

●	The role of AI in enhancing patient communication
●	Human-centreed design and clinical insight in ai development
●	Technical integration with electronic health records (EHR)
●	Real-world testing and impact on clinical workflows
●	Incorporating wearable and environmental data

GUEST DETAILS

Denis Roche is the CEO and founder of eAltra, a Trinity College Dublin spinout developing conversational AI to support cancer care. With over 25 years of experience in digitising patient pathways, Denis brings deep expertise in cognitive computing and data analytics. His clinical insights, gained from working in leading healthcare settings, have driven eAltra’s mission to address global under-capacity in cancer care. Under his leadership, the company has secured Enterprise Ireland funding and won Best Emerging AI at Spark Crowdfunding’s Top 100 Awards.
https://www.eAltra.com/ 

MORE INFORMATION

You can learn more about your AI Literacy in the Classroom here: https://ai-literacy-in-the-classroom.adaptcentre.ie/
 
Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre
For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie


QUOTES

It's really just to combine the information source with the accessibility, making it more powerful. - Denis Roche 

What we're trying to do at eAltra is to equip the patient as best as we can. Give them the information that they need, in the way that they want it, at the time that they need it. - Denis Roche 

We're trying to create somewhere that patients can come and know that it's safe and it's private. - Denis Roche 

The hospital teams think it's going to bring the time they spend down by about 50%. - Denis Roche

It feeds into streamlining or improving the patient scheduling process. - Denis Roche

KEYWORDS
#AI #technology #cancer #healthcare #EHR #clinicaltrials #patient #data #digitalhealth

Empowering Cancer Patients with AI

This week Kevin Koidl from digital content research centre Adapt talks about a new model of trustworthy social networks. In other news, Eir is back with big broadband promises, but can it deliver?

Adapt's Kevin Koidl on rethinking social networks

Abigail's research aims to improve automatic processing of Irish multiword expressions (MWEs).

Abigail Walsh: Developing Irish Language Technology

ADAPT, the world-leading SFI Research Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology, brings leading academics, researchers and industry partners together to deliver excellent science, engage the public, develop novel solutions for business across all sectors and enhance Ireland’s international reputation.

A New Direction with Prof John Kelleher

ADAPT Radio

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