Professor Mark J. Daley, Chief AI office, Department of Computer Science, Western University.
Title: Research in a post-anthropocentric intelligence paradigm
Professor Mark Daley is the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at Western University in London, Ontario: a first at any Canadian institution, he began in this position in October 2023. His interdisciplinary expertise and leadership have positioned Daley at the forefront of AI integration in higher education. A multidisciplinary scholar, he is a full professor in the Department of Computer Science, with cross-appointments in five other departments: Biology, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mathematics, and Statistics & Actuarial Science. He is also affiliated with the Rotman Institute of Philosophy, the Brain and Mind Institute, and the Western Institute for Neuroscience. Although Daley's most recent research interests are centred around STEM disciplines and computer science (e.g., natural computing, computational neuroscience, data science, applied machine learning, theoretical computer science and bioinformatics), his educational background and ongoing scholarly activities also reflect a significant and sustained engagement outside of STEM, for instance in music (particularly at the intersection of music, computation, and artificial intelligence) and linguistics. Well-versed in the algorithmic aspects of Large Language Model, he understands the limits of these models in comparison to the kinds of requirements that a theory of natural language must meet; and his knowledge of integration of AI to interdisciplinary research gives him an ideal perspective on how to use AI for linguistic research at the theoretical, descriptive and application levels.
Professor Tania Granadillo, Associate Professor, Linguistic & Socialcultural Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Western University
Title: Indigenous language reclamation and AI: possibilities?
Professor Tania Granadillo is an anthropologist and a linguist interested in language in the broadest sense imaginable. Early in her career, she worked extensively on endangered Indigenous languages of Venezuela Mapoyo (Carib family) and Kurripako (Arawak family), with specific interests in their revitalization, documentation and description from a linguistic perspective. Her interests have also encompassed the socio-cultural aspects of the speakers of these languages, from storytelling, verbal art, writing systems, multilingualism, socialization, among many other. Lately, she has turned her fascination for anything linguistic and anthropological to the Oneida language of the Thames, a Haudenosaune language spoken in the region where London and Western University is located.
