"Can't You See I'm Busy? Computers That Know When to Interrupt"

Experience the complete proceedings on-line: streaming video of the lecture is now available.
Video (1:15 minutes)

For more information, read "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me: Teaching Computers When to Interrupt."

Sometimes a computer system has information its user needs; at other times, the user may have information that helps the computer. Current systems require that people adapt to the computer, if only to tell it to go away. In her first lecture as dean of the Radcliffe Institute, Barbara J. Grosz will describe research that aims to shift the burden of adaptation from human to computer, so that computers respect our needs and adapt to us rather than the other way around.
 
In addition to being dean of the Radcliffe Institute, Grosz is Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She previously served as the Institute’s dean of science, designing and building its science program. Grosz has been a Harvard University faculty member since 1986. Her research in computer science, focused on finding ways to make computers behave more intelligently, draws on work in linguistics, psychology, economics, and philosophy. Grosz has also led several Harvard University efforts to increase the participation of women in science. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and the Association for Computing Machinery. In 1993, Grosz became the first woman president of the AAAI. She serves on the executive committee and is a former trustee of the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence.

This lecture is free and open to the public.