Computer scientist Michael I. Jordan, awarded with the 17th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies, explains how his work has been pivotal in laying the foundations of modern artificial intelligence. A pioneer of variational inference methods and large-scale computing, he developed essential tools for generative learning and the training of large language models, such as the Ray project. He highlights the need for AI systems to be transparent and capable of handling uncertainty, and emphasizes their potential to foster human connections, drive creativity, strengthen knowledge-based markets, and support a more open and democratic society.
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Information and Communication Technologies category has gone in this seventeenth edition to Professors Anil Jain and Michael I. Jordan for
Computer scientist Michael I. Jordan, awarded with the 17th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies, explains how his work has been pivotal in laying the foundations of modern artificial intelligence. A pioneer of variational inference methods and large-scale computing, he developed essential tools for generative learning and the training of large language models, such as the Ray project. He highlights the need for AI systems to be transparent and capable of handling uncertainty, and emphasizes their potential to foster human connections, drive creativity, strengthen knowledge-based markets, and support a more open and democratic society.
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Information and Communication Technologies category has gone in this seventeenth edition to Professors Anil Jain and Michael I. Jordan for their “core contributions” to machine learning, which have unlocked “applications of far-reaching impact on society as a whole.”
00:00 Introduction
00:04 What have been the core contributions of your work to machine learning, by enabling computers to make predictions from observed data?
01:14 How has your work contributed to the development of technologies such as generative artificial intelligence?
02:28 In what ways can your research contribute to economic decision making in contexts of uncertainty, at the level of both individual consumers as well as companies?
03:59 Do you agree with such a view or are you optimistic about the benefits which this technology will bring to society?
