Alan Smeaton

Alan Smeaton

DCU

Professor Alan Smeaton is the Founding Director of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics and Professor of Computing at DCU. He is a former member of the board of the Irish Research Council.

"The worry is not that AI using LLMs will do planning and deduction and take over the world, but that big tech companies are now focusing on deploying AI and not on understanding it." Photo: Getty Images

AI: Why is there so much chatter about Large Language Models?

Large language models are what makes generative AI software create text that sounds as human as possible

Artificial Intelligence • 21 May 24

'The best example of good AI is WALL-E, with the trash-cleaning robot cleaning up after the mess we humans make of our planet.' Image: Pixar

How AI has been portrayed in movies from past to present

From Metropolis to WALL-E and beyond, AI has featured in films as a force for good - and bad

Film • 06 Oct 22

'Even if you do delete all your social media accounts, that doesn't get you off the grid'. Photo: Thought Catalog/ Unsplash

Can I delete myself from the internet?

People usually do not realise how much information is out there about them - and the work required to remove it

Podcast • 01 Sep 22

The cameras are always on. Photo: Getty Images

Here's how to stop facial recognition systems in their tracks

Researchers have developed adversarial image generators to fool facial recognition software and protect privacy rights

technology • 10 Nov 21

Putting a poll in the field: the rise and fall of opinion polls

With their sampling errors and shy voters, opinion polls are not perfect and come with an element of 'buyer beware'

Opinion Polls • 28 Jul 20

"In 1960, the average sleep for an adult in the United States was 8.5 hours per night. Nowadays, the mean sleep is less than seven hours."

Nodding off: measuring the quality and duration of sleep

The arrival of sleep measurement devices have allowed us measure the quality and duration of our own sleep

Health • 23 May 19

$"Humans may be that fraction of a second slower at translating languages, recognising speech or describing images, but our reasoning is based on cause, not association"$

Why AI will not outsmart us

Artificial intelligence will continue to do great things, but only for limited rather than general tasks

Artificial Intelligence • 17 Jul 18

3.5 billion searches every day and counting

Why is internet search the same now as it was 25 years ago?

Web search companies won't take a cut in revenue to offer us a better search experience, especially since we don't pay for it

Internet search • 15 May 18

"What is the university's role in ensuring research carried out in its name does not pose a privacy risk to individuals?"

An Irish Cambridge Analytica? Not if we get our ethics in order

Irish universities are heavily involved in social media data analysis, so what's to prevent a rogue researcher aiding a private enterprise or political movement?

Cambridge Analytica • 04 Apr 18

Alan Smeaton

AI: Why is there so much chatter about Large Language Models?

How AI has been portrayed in movies from past to present

Can I delete myself from the internet?

Here's how to stop facial recognition systems in their tracks

Putting a poll in the field: the rise and fall of opinion polls

Nodding off: measuring the quality and duration of sleep

Why AI will not outsmart us

Why is internet search the same now as it was 25 years ago?

An Irish Cambridge Analytica? Not if we get our ethics in order

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