Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, including the machine learning models behind DALL.E 2, ChatGPT and Meta’s new Segment Anything Model (SAM), will be discussed at a free seminar next week.

Organized by Brock University Graduate Mathematics and Science Students (GRAMSS) as part of its Seminar Series, the event will feature a presentation by Yifeng Li, Assistant Professor with Brock’s Departments of Biological Sciences and Computer Science and Canada Research Chair in Machine Learning for Biomedical Data Science.

Li’s talk will provide a comprehensive review of recent developments of advanced AI techniques over the past decade, particularly within the past two years.

Different AI learning paradigms and architectures will be introduced, such as:

• generative models (algorithms that can learn from existing data and then generate new data)
• attention models (algorithms that can align related information for a specific task)
• transfer learning (algorithms that can transfer knowledge from one domain to another domain)
• self-supervised learning (algorithms that can learn themselves)
• generalist models (algorithms that can do multiple tasks)
• data-model coevolution (an algorithm that uses its good results to iteratively improve itself)

Yifeng Li, Assistant Professor with Brock University’s Departments of Biological Sciences and Computer Science, and Canada Research Chair in Machine Learning for Biomedical Data Science.

“These models are the foundations of the well-known artificial intelligence systems DALL.E 2, which is commonly used for digital art image generation; ChatGPT chatbot; and SAM, which is used to select and cut out objects from within an image,” Li said.

As part of his presentation, Li will share insight into AI research trends for the next few years. He is an expert in bioinformatics, an emerging area of study in which software tools and methods are used to reveal patterns embedded in large, complex biological data sets. His recent research projects include harnessing AI for drug discovery, using AI for biomedical image processing and conversational AI for health-care applications.

Li has created three AI-related foundation courses at Brock, which he also teaches: COSC 5P77 Probabilistic Graphical Models and Neural Generative Models, COSC 5P83/4P83 Reinforcement Learning and BIOL 3P06/5V80 Biomedical Data Science.

The session, “Recent progress in artificial intelligence,” will take place Tuesday, April 18 from 1 to 2 p.m. in MCH 313 of Brock’s Mackenzie Chown Complex. The presentation can also be viewed live via Microsoft Teams. Complimentary coffee and cookies will be provided to those attending in person.

All Brock University graduate and undergraduate students, as well as faculty and staff are welcome to attend.

Visit GRAMSS Instagram and GRAMSS Twitter to learn more about upcoming seminars and how graduate students can get involved as part of the society’s executive team.