July 11, 2019: What is an algorithm?

Thursday, July 11, 2019 from 4:30pm to 8pm, UM Polytech, amphi Serge Peytavin (Triolet campus, building 31),
with free but compulsory registration, cocktail afterwards
attention, roadworks: longer journey from the streetcar station

What is an algorithm?

Free but compulsory registration

Summary:
Developments in artificial intelligence have given rise to much debate about the role it could soon play in human society. The extent of the possibilities opened up by these techniques arouses both enthusiasm and concern. At the heart of all these devices are always algorithms. In this talk, I'll begin by asking the question: what is an algorithm? I'll extend it by asking: what is it that can give an algorithm the particular ability to "recognize shapes"? Indeed, "pattern recognition" is the other, perhaps more accurate, name for artificial intelligence. In this connection, I'd like to ask where the assimilation between intelligence (artificial or otherwise) and pattern recognition comes from. As we shall see, this simple question leads us to revisit the entire history of philosophy.

Pascal Nouvel, Doctor of Science (biology) and Doctor of Letters (philosophy), is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tours, member of the Education, Ethics and Health team (EA 7505), and Director of the Centre for Ethics and Contemporary Philosophy. He is the author ofL'art d'aimer la science(PUF, 2000),Enquête sur le concept de modèle(2003, s. dir),Le possible et les biotechnologies(PUF, 2003, with Claude Debru),Histoire des ampétamines(PUF, 2009),La philosophie des sciences(PUF, 2011),Axiomatique des sentiments(Hermann, 2015).