Speakers Profile - Prof Toby Walsh










Travels From:
Sydney

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Toby Walsh is one of the leading researchers in the world in Artificial Intelligence. He was recently named in the inaugural Knowledge Nation 100, the one hundred rockstars of Australia's digital revolution. He is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and a Research Group leader at Data61, Australia's Centre of Excellence for ICT Research. He has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, as well as a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence. He has won several prestigious research prizes including the Humboldt award. He is in the process of launching a new research centre at UNSW, �The Centre for the Impact of AI and Robotics� which will take a multi-disciplinary view on how AI and Robotics will impact on our society, our economies and our lives.

He has held research positions at a number of top universities in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland and Sweden. In 2015, he collected 1000 signatures for an Open Letter calling for a ban on offensive autonomous weapons. The letter was also signed by Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak. In total, the letter now has over 20,000 signatures and has pushed this issue into the world's spotlight. The letter argues that we need to take action today to prevent an arms race in which these lethal autonomous weapons fall into the hands of terrorists and rogue nations. Following on from this, he was invited to give a TEDx talk about killer robots, and later to talk about the issue at the UN in both New York and Geneva. He gave a public lecture on this topic which was broadcast by ABC RN �Big Ideas�.

Toby is a passionate communicator about science and technology. He was recently nominated for the 2016 Eureka Award for Promoting Understanding of Australian Science Research, Australia�s premier award for scientific communication (results to be announced in August). He speaks regularly to the press. In the last year, he has been interviewed or written for the Australian, AFR, American Scientist, Business Insider, CIO, CNN, the Conversation, Discover, Forbes, Frankfurter Allgemeine, the Guardian, the New Daily, New Scientist, Newsweek, the Register, Science, Scientific American, Le Scienze, Sydney Morning Herald, Tech Insider, TED, Washington Post, and ZDNet. He also appears regularly on the radio and TV. Also in the course of the last year, he has appeared on ABC Lateline, ABC News 24, ABC Radio National, CCTV, Channel 7 Sunrise, Channel 7 News, Channel 9 Mornings, DW Radio, NPR, RT, SBS Insight, SBS Radio, and Voice of America, as well as many local radio stations like ABC 702, ABC Radio Adelaide, ABC Adelaide, and 2SER.

He writes regularly for a number of news outlets including the Conversation. An article he wrote for the American Scientist is featured in the collection �The Best Writing in Mathematics 2015� published by Princeton University Press. His book, "Thinking Machines: Mankind's Greatest Legacy?" will be published by Black Inc towards the end of 2016. His blog, http://thefutureofai.blogspot.com.au/ attracts hundreds of readers each day. His twitter account was declared by TechRepublic as one of the top 10 to follow to keep abreast of developments in Artificial Intelligence.


Website Link:
http://thefutureofai.blogsp/