Pepperdine University Hosts Third Annual Human-Centered AI Conference
On Friday and Saturday, September 20 and 21, Pepperdine University will host the Human-Centered AI Conference—an annual event that brings together artificial intelligence (AI) experts from around the world to discuss how this burgeoning technology can be ethically used to improve the human condition.
“We are one of the first institutions to have a human-centered AI conference,”says Fabien Scalzo, director of Seaver College’s Keck Data Science Institute and an associate professor of computer science, who organized the event. “There are many events right now centered on AI, but very few put humanity ahead of technology.”
This year’s conference will feature presentations from 14 different AI experts including a keynote address from Maya Rogers (‘00, MBA ‘09), the CEO of Tetris. Within this lineup of speakers, a wide variety of top academic institutions will be represented, ranging from local schools in Southern California (the University of Southern California; University of California, Los Angeles; and University of California, Santa Barbara) to universities in Switzerland (the University of Bern and the University of Zurich). The diverse cast of presenters will discuss the uses of AI from a multitude of perspectives. This year the specific list of topics includes robotics, neuroscience, ethics, and biodiversity.
In addition to the professionals, the Human-Centered AI Conference will also feature student recipients of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship—an award granted to sophomores and juniors who demonstrate potential as America’s future natural scientists, mathematicians, or engineers. The Goldwater Scholarship is highly selective and honors only a slim margin of students from around the country. Seaver College’s Human Centered-AI Conference will feature six different Goldwater awardees, one of whom is current Pepperdine student Sean Wu.
As an undergraduate, Wu has published 15 different scholarly articles, all of which are related to AI and its potential for use in the medical field. In addition to being awarded a Goldwater Scholarship, he earned honorable mention as an outstanding undergraduate researcher by the Computing Research Association. Wu will present as part of a panel of other Goldwater scholars on Saturday.
“I am very excited to host the Goldwater Scholars,” says Scalzo. “They are all undergraduate students who have received this distinct honor, and they all feature AI in their research. Most of all, I’m excited that Sean, one of our own students, will get the chance to talk about his impactful work.”
By bringing together a mixture of current and future researchers, this year’s Human-Centered AI Conference helps solidify Pepperdine University as a hub for the unfolding developments in the field. The event, which originated in 2022, brings the top minds of the AI discipline to the Malibu campus on an annual basis, granting Pepperdine students access to some of the most innovative thinking about this technology
“I hope this conference brings inspiration to our students,” says Scalzo, “I hope that they learn what is possible with this new technology—that they see its remarkable breadth.
For more information visit the Human-Centered AI webpage.