"Machining the Ghost: Ideating in the Age of AI" - Dan Rockmore

Generative AI — from large language models to algorithms that create images — is reshaping how people come up with ideas — for better and for worse. It is the latest in a long history of cognitive tools. But could it also be the killer app that replaces its inventors?

Dan Rockmore is the William H. Neukom 1964 Distinguished Professor of Computational Science, Director of the Neukom Institute for Computational Science, and Associate Dean for the Sciences at Dartmouth College. He holds appointments in two academic departments — math and computer science — and is deeply committed to interdisciplinary study. He has worked at Dartmouth since 1991. He completed his undergraduate work at Princeton University and earned his Ph.D.in Mathematics at Harvard University.

Dan directed SFI’s Complex Systems Summer School 2005-2009. His most recent book is the edited volume What are the Arts and Sciences? A Guide for the Curious (UPNE 2018). He is also co-editor of the book Law as Data, soon to be published through SFI Press. In addition to his scientific work he is the co-producer of four documentary films, most recently The Birth of BASIC on the origins of the BASIC programming language.