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J. Mark Bishop
FACT360
J. Mark Bishop, elected Chair of the AISB - the UK Association for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour and the world’s longest-established society for the study of AI, [2010-2014] - is Chief Scientific Adviser to Fact360, Professor (Emeritus) Cognitive Computing at the University of London and a member of the International Faculty at the Karel Čapek Centre, Praha, Czech Republic. In 2017 Mark was awarded a one-year residential ‘Distinguished Professorial Fellowship’, at University of Notre Dame (USA). At the University of London, Mark led teams that pioneered AI for fraud detection and B2B e-procurement, research deployed by the UK National Audit Office to identify £500m potential savings in the NHS consumable budget. This result was discussed in parliament and subsequently informed funding policy for the NHS. Over his career, Mark has won research funding in excess of £3m and published over 200 articles and three books in the field of Cognitive Computing, addressing its theory, application and philosophical foundations. Mark has been invited to advise on “AI policy” at the UN (Geneva/Turin/Birmingham), the EC (Brussels) and the UK (Westminster/Whitehall).
In 1989, Mark developed the first ‘Swarm Intelligence’ paradigm - Stochastic Diffusion Search (SDS) - which has subsequently enjoyed wide application in areas as diverse as radiography, colour recipe prediction and mobile robot localisation. In addition, Mark has significant experience in the application of other Artificial Intelligence techniques to real-world problems, most notably in the domain of e-procurement (research famously deployed by the UK National Audit Office in 2011 to identify £500m potential savings in the NHS consumable budget). Over his career, Mark has successfully deployed AI in areas as diverse as time-series forecasting (UK National Grid); face recognition (BT); optimisation theory (EPSRC); interplanetary mission planning (ESA) and mobile-robot localisation (EU). Most recently, Mark has been working with Fact360 to use AI for e-forensics & Insider Threat detection, with the UKRI to develop AI for HR Analytics, and partnering with Sherwin-Williams in investigating the use of AI in Colour Physics. In contrast, in 2002, Mark’s work in the ‘philosophy of AI’ led to an influential critique of all computational approaches to Artificial Intelligence through international collaborative research focussed on Professor John Searle's famous 'Chinese Room Argument'.
In Mark's 2021 Frontiers paper, "Artificial Intelligence is stupid, and causal reasoning will not fix it", he highlighted three a priori arguments that, controversially, purport to demonstrate: (i) that computation cannot realise understanding (from Searle); (ii) that computation cannot realise mathematical insight (from Penrose), and (iii) that computation cannot realise raw sensation, or feeling, (from the `Dancing with Pixies’ reductio, Mark's unique contribution to the debate).
This analysis certainly struck a chord. With over 100,000 views and downloads, the paper has enjoyed more views than 99% of all articles published across all Frontiers journals. Frontiers, partly owned by the publishers of Nature, is a reasonably well-respected academic publisher.
In 1989, Mark developed the first ‘Swarm Intelligence’ paradigm - Stochastic Diffusion Search (SDS) - which has subsequently enjoyed wide application in areas as diverse as radiography, colour recipe prediction and mobile robot localisation. In addition, Mark has significant experience in the application of other Artificial Intelligence techniques to real-world problems, most notably in the domain of e-procurement (research famously deployed by the UK National Audit Office in 2011 to identify £500m potential savings in the NHS consumable budget). Over his career, Mark has successfully deployed AI in areas as diverse as time-series forecasting (UK National Grid); face recognition (BT); optimisation theory (EPSRC); interplanetary mission planning (ESA) and mobile-robot localisation (EU). Most recently, Mark has been working with Fact360 to use AI for e-forensics & Insider Threat detection, with the UKRI to develop AI for HR Analytics, and partnering with Sherwin-Williams in investigating the use of AI in Colour Physics. In contrast, in 2002, Mark’s work in the ‘philosophy of AI’ led to an influential critique of all computational approaches to Artificial Intelligence through international collaborative research focussed on Professor John Searle's famous 'Chinese Room Argument'.
In Mark's 2021 Frontiers paper, "Artificial Intelligence is stupid, and causal reasoning will not fix it", he highlighted three a priori arguments that, controversially, purport to demonstrate: (i) that computation cannot realise understanding (from Searle); (ii) that computation cannot realise mathematical insight (from Penrose), and (iii) that computation cannot realise raw sensation, or feeling, (from the `Dancing with Pixies’ reductio, Mark's unique contribution to the debate).
This analysis certainly struck a chord. With over 100,000 views and downloads, the paper has enjoyed more views than 99% of all articles published across all Frontiers journals. Frontiers, partly owned by the publishers of Nature, is a reasonably well-respected academic publisher.