Events The Implications of Generative AI with Scott Alfeld

October 24, 2023

Several hundred members of the Amherst community joined Scott Alfeld, assistant professor of computer science, for his presentation entitled, The Implications of Generative AI. Professor Alfeld shared how the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) technology works, how it is affecting industry and academia, and how students and faculty at Amherst College are engaging with it.

Scott Alfeld is an assistant professor of computer science at Amherst College. His research is at the intersection of machine learning and security, centered on using data analysis techniques in the presence of intelligent adversaries. More broadly, his work focuses on performing statistical inference when the source of data is a diverse set of (potentially adversarial) agents or sensors with unknown relationships to one another. Outside of academia, Scott is a wildlife and astronomy enthusiast and volunteers as a locksport instructor.

Nicholas Horton is Beitzel Professor of Technology and Society (Statistics and Data Science) at Amherst College. He is passionate about improving quantitative and computational literacy for students with a variety of backgrounds and has worked to deepen engagement and mastery of higher-level concepts and data acumen. He served as the co-chair of the planning committee for the NASEM Workshop on K-12 Data Science, co-PI of the NSF-funded Data Science Corps Wrangle/Analyze/Visualize project, chair of the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies, and co-chair of the NASEM Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics. He is the editor of the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education. Nick has received a number of teaching awards and the American Statistical Association Founders Award. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.