Artificial Intelligence

Is your brain smarter than a computer?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made great advances in the past few years. Many of these advances depend on algorithms that were originally inspired by how your brain works. However, in many important ways you are still much smarter than any AI algorithm yet designed.

Join us this month as Professor Geoff Goodhill and Dr Lilach Avitan discuss how we still have much to learn from the brain for building better AI.

Watch the recording

Recording of "Artificial Intelligence" lecture (YouTube, 1h:11m:12s)

Meet the presenters

Professor Geoff Goodhill is one of Australia’s leading computational neuroscientists. He originally trained in the UK in mathematics, physics and AI, but he then became fascinated by understanding the algorithms the brain uses to achieve its astonishing feats of computation.

After 8 years as a Professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC, he then moved to a joint appointment between the Queensland Brain Institute and the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Queensland. He was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Network: Computation in Neural Systems for 5 years, and is currently on the editorial boards of the journals Neural Computation and Brain Informatics.

Dr Lilach Avitan is a computational neuroscientist with the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland. She investigates how our brain processes information in order to understand brain function, how to build more intelligent computing devices and how to develop brain-machine interfaces.

Dr Avitan was awarded her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Statistics in Israel. Determined to apply her knowledge on real-world questions, she transitioned to the discipline of neuroscience and was awarded a PhD in computational neuroscience. She subsequently moved to Australia to pursue her academic career at the Queensland Brain Institute where she regularly mentors research higher degree students and actively promotes women in science tackling issues of equity and diversity.

Recently Dr Avitan was selected by Science & Technology Australia to be a ‘Superstar of STEM’, showcasing Australia’s most dynamic female scientists as role models for young women and girls.