LEWISTON — An upcoming Senior College Food for Thought, “Should We Be Afraid of AI?,” is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Friday, April 28.

Mathieu Poulin’s presentation will be held at USM Lewiston-Auburn College at 51 Westminster St. in Lewiston in Room 170, as well virtually via Zoom.

Mathieu Poulin’s AI-generated photo of himself. Submitted image

Poulin is a new non-traditional student at USM who has been studying artificial intelligence full-time for the past seven months. His long-time love of language led him to get a certification in Natural Language Processing (getting computers to understand human language), and thus piqued his interest in the field.

Poulin went on to discover Copilot, an AI autocomplete engine for code, and was soon writing code twice as fast as he previously could. He went on to research the company responsible for Copilot’s base model, OpenAI.

With the release of ChatGPT last November, it became clear to him that there was going to be a major paradigm shift regarding how people interact with computers. Since then, Mathieu has been following AI developments, as well as helping others get started with AI.

During this presentation, attendees can expect an overview of artificial intelligence, starting with a brief history of AI and its growing importance in today’s world. They will learn something about the kinds of AI and their development. Practical uses of AI in industries such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing and transportation will be explored, along with AI safety and alignment.

The talk will address the ethical problems associated with AI implementations, covering topics like bias, privacy, job displacement and autonomous weapons.

Finally, the speaker will discuss the future of AI and its potential impact on society, followed by a conclusion that emphasizes responsible AI development and usage, and a Q&A session.

The event will not serve food, but the cafe at the college is open; people can bring food in while they watch.

To attend, people should email laseniorcollege@gmail.com by noon Thursday, April 27, and mention the name of the program and whether or not they will be using Zoom.

Check out other upcoming area events!