Biological Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence: A demonstration by Fleur Petit

Tonight, all your most pressing questions on artificial intelligence will be answered! Going by practical examples and a demonstration of code vs. visualisation, Utrecht University philosophy student Fleur Petit will show us what exactly AI entails. This is Fleur’s own description of her talk:

“Nowadays, AI is applied everywhere; everyone has heard of it in some way. Nonetheless, the way in which ‘genetic algorithms’, ‘neural networks’, ‘agents’ and other models are implemented remains vague. It probably doesn’t help that these terms tend to speak to the imagination. The term ‘intelligence’ alone is associated more with being human than with digital data processing. In my talk, I’ll show small fragments of code and visualisations of models in AI, and explain in a comprehensible way how these work.I myself think that, although these models are based on biological equivalents, the two shouldn’t be confused. This means to say that a neural net shares functional properties with models of the human brain, but in a way that is more remote from human intelligence than is commonly expected.

I am not an expert in this field; I’ve recently finished my Bachelor’s in philosophy and am currently finishing my Bachelor’s in artificial intelligence. Questions, remarks, additions and even corrections regarding my talk are actively welcomed. In this way, I myself hope learn more about the subject.”

Pictured: Hunters and prey, genetic algorithm, first-year group assignment with Aart de Jong. Course: Introduction to Adaptive Systems by Gerard Vreeswijk, Utrecht University