LASER Talks at Stanford: Real and Artificial Minds, AI for Artists, and Satirical Art @ Stanford

Three leading thinkers explore how artificial intelligence may shape artistic practice, how satire can confront the absurdities of contemporary culture and politics, and what real and artificial minds reveal about one another.

 Program

• David Eagleman, Stanford University “What Will AI Mean for Artists?”

• Kathy Aoki, Santa Clara University “Art Attacks: Critical Wit in Absurd Times”

• Jay McClelland, Stanford University and the Center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology “Shared Strengths and Weaknesses of Real and Artificial Minds”

This programme brings together three LASER Talks spanning neuroscience, artificial intelligence and satirical art.

Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman considers what artificial intelligence will mean for artists and creative practice. Multidisciplinary artist Kathy Aoki examines the power of critical wit to confront the absurd value systems shaping gender, popular culture and politics. Cognitive scientist Jay McClelland explores the strengths and weaknesses shared by biological and artificial minds.

Chaired by cultural historian Piero Scaruffi, the evening offers perspectives from art and science on intelligence, creativity and cultural critique.

SPEAKER BIOS

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford University whose research encompasses sensory substitution, time perception, vision and synesthesia. He is the author of numerous books, including Livewired, The Runaway Species, The Brain, Incognito and Wednesday Is Indigo Blue. His bestselling work of literary fiction, Sum, has inspired two operas. He has also launched several neurotechnology companies from his laboratory.

Kathy Aoki is a multidisciplinary visual artist who uses satire to critique the absurd value systems that dominate gender, popular culture and politics. She is Professor of Studio Art at Santa Clara University. Her printmaking can be found in major collections across the United States, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Jay McClelland is Co-Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology at Stanford University, where he formerly chaired the Department of Psychology. In 1986, McClelland and David Rumelhart published the pioneering two-volume work on connectionism, Parallel Distributed Processing. He has co-developed major neurological theories of human memory and language.

Detailed biographies are available at LASER Talks(link is external).