Head Shot of Richard Taylor

CIS 720 Seminar – New Frontiers in CIS: Quantum Artificial Intelligence

Please join us at the CIS 720 seminar from 4:30 to 5:30pm on Monday, January 24 for a talk by Dr. Richard D. Taylor on “New Frontiers in CIS: Quantum Artificial Intelligence.” Dr. Taylor is Palmer Chair and Professor of Telecommunications Studies and Law Emeritus in the Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University and CIS Affiliate Faculty.

Abstract:

CIS is by definition interdisciplinary, examining the nexus between technology and society. Its boundaries are as broad and flexible as the leading technologies of its time. As new technologies emerge, they may initially seem to be beyond the existing borders of the field and it may take time to fully accept and integrate them into the discourse of the field. One such emerging technology is Quantum Artificial Intelligence (QAI).

QAI is a fusion of two applications: quantum computing and artificial intelligence. Put prosaically, QAI uses quantum computing for running deep learning algorithms, or, put more colloquially, is “AI on steroids”. Each of these applications has other independent uses, but this combination is seen by some leaders (e.g., Google, Microsoft, NASA) as something unique and special. While it is still very early in its development, concerns are already being raised about the possibility of its misuse, with security (encryption) and social (human rights) implications. Consequently, international discussions are already well underway regarding its governance, laws, regulation and ethics.

This presentation will discuss the larger context in which CAI is emerging (exponential digital growth, the datasphere), the three contesting geopolitical models of digital governance: the EU (paternalist/rules driven); the U.S. (“wait and see”/soft law) and China (directed growth and social management), and three organizational models for implementation: multi-stakeholderism, multi-lateralism, and national cybersovereignty.

It concludes with a review of proposals for CAI norms and principles, while recognizing that fundamental differences between democratic and authoritarian regimes may not be reconcilable.

Bio:

Richard Taylor is Palmer Chair and Professor of Telecommunications Studies and Law Emeritus in the Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University and was Distinguished Professor in Residence in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (2015-2017). He is founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Information Policy (https://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_JIP.html) and is engaged in scholarly research and publishing and occasional consulting on emerging information policy issues. He is Senior Advisor to the Institute for Information Policy at Penn State and the Pacific ICT Collaborative at U.H. He is former two-time Chair of the Board of Governors of the Pacific Telecommunications Council, and former member of the Board of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference.

In recent years he has published a body of related future-oriented scholarly articles on: the emerging information Infosphere; global cyberspace governance; data localization; quantum artificial intelligence; broadband policy for 2030, and a book chapter on “The Future of Information Policy”. In 2020, he was an invited expert participant in the NSF’s Broadband Research Workshop (BRW) 2020 and had been a key participant in its 2016 BRW which produced, “Broadband 2021: The U.S. National Broadband Research Agenda”.

He has long been active in the Asia-Pacific and has visited China multiple times to give lectures and work with experts. He was an invited participant at the 2nd and 3rd World Internet Conferences in Wuzhen, China. During the pandemic, he delivered invited remote video lectures to universities in Beijing, China and Gothenburg, Sweden.

Prior to joining Penn State in 1989, he was V.P./Corporate Counsel at Warner Cable Communications in New York City. He holds a doctorate from Columbia University and a law degree from New York University School of Law.

See: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-taylor-682b7b24/
https://www.bellisario.psu.edu/people/individual/richard-taylor