Hiroaki Kitano

Current Positions

CEO of Sony Computer Science Labs
Professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology
President of the Systems Biology Institute

Website

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroaki_Kitano

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Biography

Hiroaki Kitano is a President and CEO at Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc., Tokyo, a President at The Systems Biology Institute, Tokyo, a Professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, and a Director at Laboratory for Disease Systems Modeling, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Kanagawa. He received a B.A. in physics from the International Christian University, Tokyo, and a Ph.D. in computer science from Kyoto University. Since 1988, he has been a visiting researcher at the Center for Machine Translation at Carnegie Mellon University. His research career includes a Project Director at Kitano Symbiotic Systems Project, ERATO, Japan Science and Technology Corporation followed by a Project Director at Kitano Symbiotic Systems Project, ERATO-SORST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, a visiting professor of Keio University, a visiting professor of the University of Tokyo, and so on. He is also a Manager of Division of Cancer Systems Biology, Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, a Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Professor of Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Australia, a Founding President of The RoboCup Federation, and an Editor-in-Chief of npj Systems Biology and Applications. Kitano received The Computers and Thought Award from the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence in 1993, Prix Ars Electronica 2000, Design Award 2001(Japan Inter-Design Forum), Good Design Award 2001, and Nature’s 2009 Japan Mid-career Award for Creative Mentoring in Science, as well as being an invited artist for Biennale di Venezia 2000 and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York in 2001.

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Title

Artificial Intelligence to Win the Nobel Prize and Beyond: Creating the Engine for Scientific Discovery

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Abstract

This talk proposes a new grand challenge for AI: to develop an AI system that can make major scientific discoveries in biomedical sciences and that is worthy of a Nobel Prize. There are a series of human cognitive limitations that prevent us from making accelerated scientific discoveries, particularity in biomedical sciences. As a result, scientific discoveries are left at the level of a cottage industry. AI systems can transform scientific discoveries into highly efficient practices, thereby enabling us to expand our knowledge in unprecedented ways. Such systems may outcompute all possible hypotheses and may redefine the nature of scientific intuition, hence the scientific discovery process.