DataHour: The Future of Autonomous Systems and How Humans Fit In

The explosion of AI capabilities has raised important questions about the future of humanity and how we can (and should) live, work, and play with AI systems. Apart from forecasting and natural language conversations, a quiet revolution is happening in autonomous systems. The growth of self-driving cars is only the tip of the iceberg; a number of advances are happening in places we never see, such as dark warehouses, automated data centres, and robotic manufacturing plants.

It is difficult to predict where we will be 10-20 years in the future, but we can make an educated guess based on the fundamental characteristics of AI. This talk will make such a projection, with a particular focus on the role of humans and the skills that we should learn, to remain relevant in the AI future.

Harshad Khadilkar is a scientist with the Tata Consultancy Services Ltd research division and leads the Intelligent Data Driven Decisions team. The focus of his group is on improving the efficiency of industrial operations, with current emphasis on the use of AI techniques such as reinforcement learning. The application domains are wide-ranging, from transportation systems such as railways and airlines to supply chain operations, port operations, and decision-making in robotics.