Toby Walsh is one of the world’s leading researchers in artificial intelligence. He is Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of New South Wales and chief scientist at its new AI institute, UNSW.ai.
He has held research positions across Australia as well as in England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Sweden. Toby has also been elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Association of Computing Machinery, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and the European Coordinating Committee for AI in recognition of his research in artificial intelligence and service to the community.
Across his writing, speaking, and media engagements, Toby has advocated for placing limits on AI to ensure it improves the quality of our lives. Speaking out against the use of lethal autonomous weapons at the United Nations and to parliamentary bodies has to him being ‘banned indefinitely’ from Russia.
His books on the development, use, and dangers of AI have been translated and published across the world: The Shortest History of AI (Black Inc), Faking It: Artificial Intelligence in a Human World (La Trobe University Press), It’s Alive!: Artificial Intelligence from the Logic Piano to Killer Robots (Black Inc), 2062: The World that AI Made (Black Inc), Machines Behaving Badly: The Morality of AI (Black Inc).
You can hear Toby discussing the implications of AI on ABC’s Future Tense here