Toby Walsh

Toby Walsh is one of Australia's  leading experts in artificial intelligence (AI). He was named by the Australian newspaper as a "rock star" of the digital revolution, and included in their list of the 100 most important digital innovators in Australia. Professor Walsh is a passionate advocate for limits to ensure AI is used to improve, not harm, our lives. In 2015, he was behind an open letter calling for a ban on autonomous weapons or 'killer robots' that was signed by more than 20,000 AI researchers and high profile scientists, entrepreneurs and intellectuals, including Stephen Hawking, Noam Chomsky, Steve Wozniak, and Elon Musk. He was subsequently invited by Human Rights Watch to talk at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva about the dangers of autonomy in the battlefield. Professor Walsh is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of AI, and winner of the Humboldt Award and the NSW Premier's Prize for ICT & Engineering. His book, "It's Alive! Artificial Intelligence from the Logic Piano to Killer Robots" will be published in mid 2017 by Black Inc. His twitter account, @TobyWalsh was voted one of the top ten to keep abreast of developments in AI. His blog, thefutureofai.blogspot.com attracts tens of thousands of readers every month.