Ecology and Evolution of Pathogens in Wildlife
Lecture I: The Viruses Infecting Managed Honeybees and Native Wild Bees
Tuesday, October 3, 2:00-3:30pm via Zoom
The Viruses Infecting Managed Honeybees and Native Wild Bees
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This past year nearly half of all commercial honeybee hives in the US were lost, and four species of bumblebees are beginning to gain protection under the California Endangered Species Act due to their declines. Although both managed honeybees and native wild bees are key to our agricultural systems, their losses are uniquely different. In this talk, Nina will describe her research which focuses on the viral dynamics through time between managed honeybees and native wild bees in California.
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Lecture II: The Broad-Reaching Impacts of Bacteriophage Viruses: From Bacterial Evolution to Microbiomes and Human Health
Tuesday, October 10, 1:30-3:00pm via Zoom
The Broad-Reaching Impacts of Bacteriophage Viruses: From Bacterial Evolution to Microbiomes and Human Health
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Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria, and in doing so shape everything from pathogenicity to bacterial competition to microbiome function. In this talk, Professor Koskella will discuss what we know about these remarkable, ubiquitous viruses and their impacts within the bacterial populations and communities in which they reside. Koskella will discuss their importance in our broad understanding of microbial ecology but also highlight how this knowledge might be useful as we leverage microbes to solve some of society's grandest challenges.
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Lecture III: The Big Picture of Large Carnivore Decline and Recovery - From West Africa to the Western U.S.
Tuesday, October 17, 2:00 - 3:30pm via Zoom
The Big Picture of Large Carnivore Decline and Recovery: From West Africa to the Western U.S.
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Over the last few decades, the science and management of large carnivores has focused on the role these apex predators play in maintaining healthy ecosystems. This research has centered on the ways in which large carnivores promote species diversity, but it has more recently expanded to consider how predators may impact not just other species but also processes like fire, carbon sequestration and disease. In this talk, Justin will report on field research from West Africa that highlights the far-reaching influence of large carnivores, particularly lions and leopards, on ecosystems and people, and some unexpected consequences of their loss. He will then bring us closer to home by introducing us to new research on the very current recovery of grey wolves and other large carnivores in California.
Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence
Lecture I: AI, Medicine, and the Limits of the Human Mind
Tuesday, November 7, 2:00-3:30pm
AI, Medicine, and the Limits of the Human Mind
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“Will we still have doctors in 20 years?” is a common question. The answer is yes. But medicine, along with both the doctor and patient roles, will be fundamentally transformed by AI. Rather than simply automating tasks that doctors already do, AI will open up transformative new possibilities—along with enormous potential to scale up harms and inequalities.
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Lecture II: Understanding Generative AI and Language - Humans, Animals, and Machines
Tuesday, November 14, 2:00 - 3:30pm
Understanding Generative AI and Language: Humans, Animals, and Machines
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Speaker: Gašper Beguš, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, affiliate of Institute of Cognitive and Brain Science.
Understanding how AI models learn is the new frontier in machine learning research. In this talk, I argue that we can use human language to better understand how AI learns and, vice versa, use AI to better understand how humans acquire the defining human property: language. I will present an AI model of language that learns in a manner more similar to human infants, along with several interpretability techniques to better understand AI's inner workings. I show that AI interpretability can bring several new insights for neuroscience, cognitive science, the study of animal communication, and finally, elucidating similarities and differences between humans and machines.
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Lecture III: Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence
Tuesday, December 5th, 2:00-3:30pm
Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence
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Professor Stuart Russell will briefly survey recent and expected developments in AI and their implications. Some are enormously positive, while others, such as the development of autonomous weapons and the replacement of humans in economic roles, may be negative. Beyond these, one must expect that AI capabilities will eventually exceed those of humans across a range of real-world-decision making scenarios. Should this be a cause for concern, as Alan Turing, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and others have suggested? And, if so, what can we do about it?
The Carol D’Onofrio LIR Lecture in Public Health
Carol D’Onofrio was Chair of the UCB Retirement Center Board from 2009-2011 and served as a member at large from 2006-08. She served on the Learning in Retirement Committee for many years, chairing the committee in 2017-2019. Carol passed away on April 14, 2020. Updates on this lecture series will be posted soon.
Scroll down the page to see the upcoming Learning in Retirement (LIR) course offerings, or you can view them, along with all other upcoming Retirement Center events, by clicking the Events Calendar button. When you find a class you would like to attend, click on the Click Here to Register link and complete the registration process.