[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] [Lexington} Re: A set of three talks at the Lexington Community Center about AI and Machine Learning as evidenced in ChatGPT

Thu Oct 19 14:13:33 PDT 2023

Folks,

Yesterday's talk at the Lexington Computers and Technology Group by Conor
O'Mahony about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and ChatGPT was
excellent.  Our attendance (both in Meeting Room 237 at the Community
Center and on Zoom) approximately doubled from our normal POST-COVID
attendance.  My suspicion that this topic would have wide appeal in the
community was correct.

Conor properly changed the content of his three talks to be:

[image: image.png]
You can see a recording of the first talk at https://youtu.be/hA0EA5WZyZs.
The first talk builds gradually, showing you the kinds of things ChatGTP
can do: first the simple things, building to some answers that are pretty
amazing compared to what you can currently get by accessing information on
the Web through a search engine.  The recording is an hour and a half long:
set aside some time to watch it.  It's fun to see how Conor is able to use
ChatCPT to do a lot of amazing things.  Conor's talk builds slowly and is
within the grasp of all of us.

Once you see what ChatGPT can do, you will naturally wonder, as you would
after interacting with a very smart person, how much more it can do:

   - How does it reason?
   - How does it understand?
   - Does it have a conscience?

That is the topic for next week's talk on October 25th at 10am in room 237
of the Lexington Community Center and on Zoom at
https://bostonu.zoom.us/j/97261460830

It's not too late to catch up by looking at the video of yesterday's talk
at https://youtu.be/hA0EA5WZyZs.  I think you will enjoy seeing the start
of the next major development in Accessing the World's Knowledge.

Having been involved in the development of the Internet and watched all of
the things that have changed as a result of the Internet, I am confident
when I say that ChatGPT and its  cohort of similar systems will
have an impact as revolutionary as the Internet / World Wide Web have had
on the world.

Regards,

-- Harry

Harry Forsdick <http://www.forsdick.com/resume/>
Lexington Photo Scanning <http://lexingtonphotoscan.com/>
Town Meeting Member Precinct 7 <http://lexingtontmma.org/>
harry at forsdick.com
www.forsdick.com
  46 Burlington St.
Lexington, MA 02420 <https://goo.gl/xZXT2F>
(781) 799-6002 (mobile) <callto:17817996002>
meet.jit.si/HarryForsdick (video)
Click <http://forsdick.weebly.com/home/my-websites> to see my other websites

On Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 4:08 PM Harry Forsdick <forsdick at gmail.com> wrote:

> [This is an invitation I have just sent out to the Lexington List inviting
> people to attend Conor O'Mahony's talk about AI/ML/ChatGPT.]
>
> Folks,
>
> For the next three Wednesday mornings October 18th, 25th and November 1st
> Conor O'Mahony will talk at the *Lexington Computer and Technology Group* about
> a topic that has burst onto the scene in the last year and made many ask
> the questions:
>
> How does ChatGPT work?  In fact, how could it possibly work?
>
> On these three Wednesdays, Conor will take a look at ChatGPT with the
> intent of stepping back and doing a top down analysis of what it is, how to
> use it, and then how it works.  I have summarized Conor's talks in the
> following outline:
>
> One of the problems in trying to understand how ChatGPT works is that we
> have all heard a variety of incomplete explanations and are left on our own
> to figure out the missing pieces. This set of talks will step back and
> introduce ChatGPT methodically by presenting a top-down look at ChatGPT.
> The talks will attempt to show how several different mechanisms are
> integrated together to yield the intelligent assistant we would all like to
> have.
> October 18: How to Interact with ChatGPT
>
> The first talk will look at the goals of the application, how to use it,
> and some examples of actually using it. Then we will analyze the various
> tasks ChatGPT must perform in order to be useful.
>
>
>    - Introduction to ChatGPT
>    - Prompt Engineering: Presenting Results so that you feel like you are
>    in a conversation
>
> October 25: How Intelligent is ChatGPT?
>
> The second talk will discuss the nature of the intelligence displayed by
> ChatGPT. This will be illustrated by some successful examples that are
> pretty amazing, and then some unsuccessful examples which give more insight
> into how ChatGPT works.
>
>
>    - Reasoning, Understanding, and Consciousness
>    - Deeper Look at ChatGPT
>
> November 1: Two Additional ChatGPT Topics
>
> The third talk will start with a more complex topic: Training: What do you
> have to do to introduce knowledge into ChatGPT? What are some of the
> underpinnings that are the core mechanisms of ChatGPT? Plus some additional
> areas of research needed before ChatGPT will be what people expect from a
> truly intelligent assistant.
>
>
>    - How ChatGPT is Trained
>    - Underlying Research that has/will have Made ChatGPT Possible
>
>
> The Lexington Computer and Technology Group meets Wednesdays at the
> Lexington Community Center in room 237 from 10:00am to 11:30am. The
> Meetings are available live over Zoom (
> https://bostonu.zoom.us/j/97261460830) and at your convenience as the
> presentation will be recorded and posted (after a little editing) to
> YouTube (see: https://LCTG.toku.us <https://lctg.toku.us/> for links to
> the recordings).
>
> To receive notices of upcoming meetings and join discussions, send an
> email to LCTG-subscribe at toku.us and include in the body of your email:
>
>    - Your full name
>    - Town of Residence
>    - Brief self-introduction and your interest in the group
>    - Optionally, topic(s) of interest you might present or share at a
>    group meeting
>
>
>
> If you are curious about how the various AI systems that are sweeping the
> world are used (with live examples), please attend.  These talks will
> stay at a high level so that it's OK if you're unfamiliar with the terms,
> techniques and terminology of AI or Machine Learning.
>
> Hope to see you there.
>
> Regards,
>
> -- Harry
>
>
>
> Harry Forsdick <http://www.forsdick.com/resume/>
> Lexington Photo Scanning <http://lexingtonphotoscan.com/>
> Town Meeting Member Precinct 7 <http://lexingtontmma.org/>
> harry at forsdick.com
> www.forsdick.com
>   46 Burlington St.
> Lexington, MA 02420 <https://goo.gl/xZXT2F>
> (781) 799-6002 (mobile) <callto:17817996002>
> meet.jit.si/HarryForsdick (video)
> Click <http://forsdick.weebly.com/home/my-websites> to see my other
> websites
>
>
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