COVER
Story
Peter Bock ’62 is developing tomorrow’s artificial intelligence today The world of the future is developing today through Peter Bock ’62 of Washington, D.C., the fall 2012 Knop speaker at Ripon College. Bock is a former NASA scientist and a professor emeritus of engineering at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he was on the computer science faculty for more than 40 years. Before that, at Ripon, he and his wife, Donna Oberholtzer ’63, sang in a jazz group with Al Jarreau ’62 and Thomas “Duffy” Ashley-Farrand ’62. Bock is an international expert on artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive science. He pioneered the development of Collective Learning Systems theory, an adaptive statistical-learning paradigm for artificial intelligence. He and his research team developed the well-known AI engine known as ALISA (Adaptive Learning Image and Signal Analysis), used by prominent firms and institutions around the world. Since 1990, he
8 8
| |
RIPON C o l l e g e RIPON C o l l e g e
has been working to extend the cognitive capabilities of ALISA and develop practical applications for it. Bock’s expertise crosses multiple disciplines, from computer science to cognitive science, anthropology, developmental psychology and the humanities. These varied areas are necessary to understand how the human brain operates, he says. “It’s a big challenge. The DNA you inherited from your folks contains enough information to build your body, but comes nowhere close to the amount of information you need to fill your brain and live life. You begin with an empty computer for a brain. The rest is learned.” ALISA first responded to images and signals. In 2007, the ALISA team decided to train ALISA to create something, and this, Bock says, is how ALISA the artist was born. “Humans record symbolically,” Bock says. “We write,