Exploring Artificial Intelligence, Service

Wayne Iba, Westmont associate professor of computer science, explores service through artificial intelligence in a Phi Kappa Phi Paul C. Wilt Faculty Lecture, “Artificial Intelligence as Window into Service,” Monday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. in Hieronymus Lounge. The talk, which is free and open to the public, includes responses from Kim Kihlstrom, Westmont associate professor of computer science, and Chris Hoeckley, Westmont adjunct instructor of philosophy. Hoeckley is teaching Westmont’s Europe semester and will respond through videoconferencing.

Iba says we regularly use the term service without knowing what we mean and often provide poor service with the best of intentions. “As it turns out, we can learn something about service through the tools of artificial intelligence, specifically simulated worlds and intelligent agents,” Iba says.

Iba will present these tools and use a model of simulated service as a demonstration. “There is promise and peril for understanding and doing service through artificial intelligence,” he says.

Iba, a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, earned his master’s degree and doctorate at UC Irvine. He has worked as a research scientist at Kanisa Inc. and Institute for the Study of Learning and Expertise. He taught at Messiah College in Pennsylvania and College of Notre Dame in Belmont, Calif., before coming to Westmont six years ago.