BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:IEEE vTools.Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20260308T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20251207T211922Z UID:F03875E6-C0CE-41DF-BF44-B9261F459512 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251204T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251204T203000 DESCRIPTION:Boston Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society and GBC/ACM\n\n7:00 PM\, Thursday\, 4 December 2025\n\nMIT Room 32-G449 (Kiva) and online via Zoom\n\nWill Artificial Intelligence Be the End of Civilization\, or the Beginning?\n\nHenry Lieberman\, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intell igence Lab and Christopher Fry\, MIT Media Lab\, Sloan\, IBM\, startups (R etired)\n\nPlease register in advance for this seminar even if you plan to attend in person at\n\nhttps://acm-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/891763064 1635/WN_FKvNEH5NQAO5nzIM_jWxxw\n\nAfter registering\, you will receive a c onfirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.\n\nInd icate on the registration form if you plan to attend in person. This will help us determine whether the room is close to reaching capacity. We plan to serve light refreshments (probably pizza) before the talk starting at a round 6:30 pm. Letting us know you will come in person will help us determ ine how much pizza to order.\n\nWe may make some auxiliary material such a s slides and access to the recording available after the seminar to people who have registered.\nAbstract:\nPopular press articles whipsaw the publi c between two starkly different views of Artificial Intelligence. On one h and\, AI is presented as a magic genie that can solve all of our problems with superhuman intelligence. On the other hand\, it's presented as an unp recedented threat to humanity\, with the danger of loss of jobs\, loss of privacy\, automated discrimination\, even some kind of "robot rebellion". No wonder the public is confused. Which is it?\n\nWe present a view that i s different from both the self-interested promotion of the tech companies\ , and from the pessimism of the social critics. Believe it or not\, the bi ggest value of AI will lie\, not in simply improving the operations of tod ay's industry and government\, but in making it possible to have a more co operative\, less competitive world.\n\nOur view is:\n\n• Optimistic. Mit igating possible dangers of AI in today's society is important. But we don 't want to let fear cause us to miss the potential for AI to tackle big pr oblems people now think are intractable: war\, poverty\, climate\, etc.\n\ n• Radical. Many tech boosters imagine simply pouring AI into today's ec onomy and electoral politics. We think these systems need to be redesigned from scratch for the AI era. We have two concrete proposals: Makerism (ec onomics) and Reasonocracy (governance).\n\n• Original. Not conventionall y Left or Right\, though our ideas share some design goals with both sides . Not (yet) heard on mainstream or activist media.\n\nAbout the speakers:\ n\nHenry Lieberman is a Research Scientist in the InfoLab group at MIT's C omputer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). His career starte d at the original MIT AI Lab in the 1970's\, with Marvin Minsky and Seymou r Papert\, and he was head of the Software Agents Group at the MIT Media L ab. He pioneered real-time memory management\, prototype object systems\, and Programming by Example. He works at the intersection of AI and HCI\, a nd was twice program chair of the ACM Intelligent User Interfaces conferen ce. He served a term on the AAAI Executive Committee. He has a BS in math from MIT\, and an HDR (PhD equivalent) from the Sorbonne in Paris\, where he was also a visiting professor. He has about 120 publications and four b ooks.\n\nFry moved to Boston in 1973 to attend Berklee College of Music (t he MIT of Jazz). Realizing his musical skills needed augmentation\, he mov ed across the river to MIT (The Berklee of Computers). He’s worked at BB N\, IBM\, MIT’s Experimental Music Studio\, MIT Sloan (Business) School\ , MIT Media Lab\, and a host of start-ups. He’s written languages for mu sic composition\, general purpose computing\, decision support\, and robot ics. He also works on Personal Rapid Transit\, an innovative "packet-switc hed" transportation network.\n\nDirections to 32-G449 - MIT Stata Center\, 32 Vassar Street\, Cambridge\, MA: Please use the main entrance to the St ata Center at 32 Vassar Street (the entrance closest to Main street) as th ose doors will be unlocked. Upon entering\, proceed to the elevators which will be on the right after passing a large set of stairs and a MITAC kios k. Take the elevator to the 4th floor and turn right\, following the hall to an open area\; 32-G449 will be on the left. [Location of Stata on campu s map](https://whereis.mit.edu/?go=32)\n\nThis joint meeting of the Boston Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society and GBC/ACM will be hybrid (in perso n and online).\n\nUp-to-date information about this and other talks is ava ilable online at https://ewh.ieee.org/r1/boston/computer/. You can sign up to receive updated status information about this talk and informational e mails about future talks at https://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ieee- cs\, our self-administered mailing list.\n\nCo-sponsored by: gbc/acm\n\nSp eaker(s): \, \, \n\nRoom: MIT Room 32-G449 (Kiva)\, Bldg: Stata Center\, M IT building 32\, 32 Vassar St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, United States\ , Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/516974 LOCATION:Room: MIT Room 32-G449 (Kiva)\, Bldg: Stata Center\, MIT building 32\, 32 Vassar St\, Cambridge\, Massachusetts\, United States\, Virtual: h ttps://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/516974 ORGANIZER:p.mager@computer.org SEQUENCE:686 SUMMARY:Artificial Intelligence: the End or the Beginning? URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/516974 X-ALT-DESC:Description: <br /><blockquote>\n<h2>Boston Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society and GBC/ACM</h2>\n<h4>7:00 PM\, Thursday\, 4 December 202 5</h4>\n<p>MIT Room 32-G449 (Kiva) and online via Zoom</p>\n<p>&nbsp\;</p> \n<h4>Will Artificial Intelligence Be the End of Civilization\, or the Beg inning?</h4>\n<h4>Henry Lieberman\, MIT Computer Science and Artificial In telligence Lab and Christopher Fry\, MIT Media Lab\, Sloan\, IBM\, startup s (Retired)</h4>\n<p>&nbsp\;</p>\n<h4>Please register in advance for this seminar even if you plan to attend in person at</h4>\n<p><a href="https:// acm-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/8917630641635/WN_FKvNEH5NQAO5nzIM_jWxxw"> https://acm-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/8917630641635/WN_FKvNEH5NQAO5nzIM _jWxxw</a></p>\n<p>After registering\, you will receive a confirmation ema il containing information about joining the webinar.</p>\n<p>Indicate on t he registration form if you plan to attend in person. This will help us de termine whether the room is close to reaching capacity. We plan to serve l ight refreshments (probably pizza) before the talk starting at around 6:30 pm. Letting us know you will come in person will help us determine how mu ch pizza to order.</p>\n<p>We may make some auxiliary material such as sli des and access to the recording available after the seminar to people who have registered.</p>\nAbstract:\n<p>Popular press articles whipsaw the pub lic between two starkly different views of Artificial Intelligence. On one hand\, AI is presented as a magic genie that can solve all of our problem s with superhuman intelligence. On the other hand\, it's presented as an u nprecedented threat to humanity\, with the danger of loss of jobs\, loss o f privacy\, automated discrimination\, even some kind of "robot rebellion" . No wonder the public is confused. Which is it?</p>\n<p>We present a view that is different from both the self-interested promotion of the tech com panies\, and from the pessimism of the social critics. Believe it or not\, the biggest value of AI will lie\, not in simply improving the operations of today's industry and government\, but in making it possible to have a more cooperative\, less competitive world.</p>\n<p>Our view is:</p>\n<p>&b ull\; Optimistic. Mitigating possible dangers of AI in today's society is important. But we don't want to let fear cause us to miss the potential fo r AI to tackle big problems people now think are intractable: war\, povert y\, climate\, etc.</p>\n<p>&bull\; Radical. Many tech boosters imagine sim ply pouring AI into today's economy and electoral politics. We think these systems need to be redesigned from scratch for the AI era. We have two co ncrete proposals: Makerism (economics) and Reasonocracy (governance).</p>\ n<p>&bull\; Original. Not conventionally Left or Right\, though our ideas share some design goals with both sides. Not (yet) heard on mainstream or activist media.</p>\n<p>About the speakers:</p>\n<p>Henry Lieberman is a R esearch Scientist in the InfoLab group at MIT's Computer Science and Artif icial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). His career started at the original MIT AI Lab in the 1970's\, with Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert\, and he was hea d of the Software Agents Group at the MIT Media Lab. He pioneered real-tim e memory management\, prototype object systems\, and Programming by Exampl e. He works at the intersection of AI and HCI\, and was twice program chai r of the ACM Intelligent User Interfaces conference. He served a term on t he AAAI Executive Committee. He has a BS in math from MIT\, and an HDR (Ph D equivalent) from the Sorbonne in Paris\, where he was also a visiting pr ofessor. He has about 120 publications and four books.</p>\n<p>Fry moved t o Boston in 1973 to attend Berklee College of Music (the MIT of Jazz). Rea lizing his musical skills needed augmentation\, he moved across the river to MIT (The Berklee of Computers). He&rsquo\;s worked at BBN\, IBM\, MIT&r squo\;s Experimental Music Studio\, MIT Sloan (Business) School\, MIT Medi a Lab\, and a host of start-ups. He&rsquo\;s written languages for music c omposition\, general purpose computing\, decision support\, and robotics. He also works on Personal Rapid Transit\, an innovative "packet-switched" transportation network.</p>\n<p>Directions to 32-G449 - MIT Stata Center\, 32 Vassar Street\, Cambridge\, MA: Please use the main entrance to the St ata Center at 32 Vassar Street (the entrance closest to Main street) as th ose doors will be unlocked. Upon entering\, proceed to the elevators which will be on the right after passing a large set of stairs and a MITAC kios k. Take the elevator to the 4th floor and turn right\, following the hall to an open area\; 32-G449 will be on the left.&nbsp\;<a href="https://wher eis.mit.edu/?go=32">Location of Stata on campus map</a></p>\n<p class="nor m10">This joint meeting of the Boston Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society and GBC/ACM will be hybrid (in person and online).</p>\n<p>Up-to-date inf ormation about this and other talks is available online at https://ewh.iee e.org/r1/boston/computer/. You can sign up to receive updated status infor mation about this talk and informational emails about future talks at http s://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ieee-cs\, our self-administered maili ng list.</p>\n</blockquote> END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR