All posts by Kristinn Thorisson

IIIM News

Computer Weekly: “IIIM Could Revolutionize AI”

In a recent article that appeared in Computer Weekly, IIIM is put at the forefront of the AI revolution with the catchy headline “Icelandic Research Could Revolutionise AI”. Reporter Pat Barnes continues, “The new approach [to AI], led by Kristinn Thórisson, director of IIIM and a professor at Reykjavik University, differs from existing approaches to AI [… It relies …] on self-supervised learning [… and …]  a form of ‘reasoning’ – where the system autonomously generates hypotheses and tests them.” 

Funded in part by CISCO Systems in San Francisco, the research builds on earlier work also lead by Kristinn R. Thórisson, then at the Reykjavik University AI lab CADIA, under a 2M Euro research grant Continue reading Computer Weekly: “IIIM Could Revolutionize AI” →

IIIM News

IIIM Expresses Committment to Icelandic Government

The EU’s plan for pan-European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) across Europen countries has piqued the interest of the Icelandic government, and on May 11 it announced an interest in receiving letters of commitment from parties hoping to participate in an Icelandic EDIH, of which there is planned only one. The call, published by the EC, explicitly mentions AI centers with “advanced skills” as necessary for participation in the call. IIIM’s highly successful and long-standing close collaboration with industry, government, and academia, have put it at the forefront of applied AI and automation in Iceland. Bridging between numerous industries, academic researchers, and institutions, Continue reading IIIM Expresses Committment to Icelandic Government →

IIIM News

How Iceland Can Benefit from AI: IIIM Delivers Report to PM’s Committee on AI Policy

robot holding lightbulb
The Office of the Prime Minister of Iceland put together last year a committee to author an AI policy for Iceland. In preparation the document that is to be delivered by the committee later this spring, the committee has called for an open commentary from the general public. Earlier this week the Icelandic Institute for Intelligent Machines delivered a report on the Institute’s advice to the Prime Minister’s Office about Iceland and the 4th Industrial Revolution. The 14 page report includes answers to the committee’s questions that it specifically requested in commentary on, Continue reading How Iceland Can Benefit from AI: IIIM Delivers Report to PM’s Committee on AI Policy →

Newsletter (2012 - 2017)

VOL5, ISSUE1 – 2016

The theme this time is the concept interdisciplinary research — often discussed but seldom understood. We start with our Director, Dr. Kristinn R. Thórisson, giving an introduction to this important topic.

Our invited article in this issue is by former Director of ZiFF research institute in Bielefeld, Germany, Dr. Ipke Wachsmuth. Writes Wachsmuth: “Scientific research today is marked by a growing differentiation and specialization in the disciplines. A discipline is characterized by the questions it wants to answer, and the methods it employs to look for such answers. Increased specialization means an inevitable narrowing of focus, which is indeed its main goal. But a narrower focus may also lead to narrow-mindedness.”

Reykjavik University’s Center for Analysis & Design of Intelligent Agents and IIIM ran the Reykjavik AI Festival on the topic of killer robots and the industrial impact of AI. Titled “Terminator at Your Doorstep: How Dangerous is AI?”, the festival brought a lot of visitors, speakers, and presentations from companies in Iceland. Our guests of honor were Professor Dr. Noel Sharkey from the University of Sheffield and ethics specialist Dr. Salvör Nordal from the University of Iceland.