Director of KIOS: AI has developed much faster than experts predicted

Artificial Intelligence has developed much faster in recent years than experts had predicted, the Director of the KIOS Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence, University of Cyprus Professor Marios Polykarpou, said in an interview with the Cyprus News Agency.

He referred to the example of the ChatGPT system, saying it is a very important development, pointing out that even those who created it have not understood why it works so well. He also expressed the view that "it' s something that might change our lives".

"It's important to understand how it works because we're going to use it more and more, but it reminds me a bit of the internet era thirty years ago when it was something new, we all knew it was something important but we didn't know how it was going to be used. And this is something similar," he said.

Polykarpou was recently awarded the 2023 IEEE Frank Rosenblatt Technical Field Award for his contribution to the field of artificial intelligence. He is the first Cypriot to receive this highly competitive award given in the last 20 years, with most of the awardees coming from US universities, one from Japan and two more from Europe.

As he said, these new developments are called the fourth industrial revolution. "In the industrial revolution we saw humans being replaced by machines, now we are seeing the human mind being replaced by computers. Surely people are afraid of what is happening. However, you can't stop technology. What you can do is to try to use it in a moral way, making sure that some people are not left behind," he said.

He added that these new developments are called the fourth industrial revolution. "In the industrial revolution we saw humans being replaced by machines, now we are seeing the human mind being replaced by computers. Surely people are afraid of what is happening. However, you can't stop technology. What you can do is to try to use it in a way that it is as morally correct as possible and in a way that some people are not left behind," he said.

"Changes will happen", he went on to say, adding that it's important the new generation to be ready to adapt to new technologies. He added that you no longer go to university to learn something and use it for the next 30 years. "You cannot be taught by someone what you will use in 5-10 years. It teaches you some basics and then you have to be able to learn the next stage,” he said.

Regarding the regulation of AI, he noted that some countries such as Italy have banned ChatGPT until they understand what' s going on, while the EU is moving forward with a directive to regulate AI. He expressed the opinion that such move was in the right direction so that artificial intelligence could not be used by some people in a wrong way.

Many jobs to be lost and replaced with high-tech jobs

Although, as Polykarpou said, in recent years more and more young people are turning to research and technology professions, an additional push in this direction is still needed.

He cited predictions by World Economic Forum that several jobs in the next 5-10 years will no longer be needed because of automation and computers, and will be replaced by other jobs in the areas of computer programming, or improving the material produced automatically.

"This is already happening and will happen even more in the future," he said.

He noted that fields related to technology are in high demand and many KIOS researchers have job offers from companies.

"It is an area that will continue to develop. This has mostly happened in the last ten years. At KIOS and the University of Cyprus, we give opportunities to several young men and women, while in the past when they wanted to do research they had to do it abroad. Now they have the opportunity to come to Cyprus to do it. This is very important to me," he said. He added that several of the 190 people employed at KIOS, used to work abroad and decided to come back to Cyprus, something which he said is very important for attracting foreign investments "to have the staff who can do this kind of work in high-tech matters."

KIOS attracted around €60m research fund in the last 15 years

The Director of KIOS pointed out that since 2008 the center has attracted 125 research projects, while currently there are 35 research projects underway. In total, he added, the center has attracted around €60m in funding over the past 15 years.

KIOS Center of Excellence completes 15 years since its establishment this year and as Polykarpou mentioned, it had a great impact on research and innovation in Cyprus. It started in 2008 as a research unit of colleagues at the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Engineering of the University of Cyprus and after 15 years more than 190 researchers are employed.

At the same time, he said, that KIOS is now visible, both in Cyprus and mainly abroad, especially for automation and artificial intelligence issues and applications in large-scale systems, in Europe, in Asia and in the USA. At the same time, KIOS has developed many collaborations with other universities mainly in Europe and large companies abroad.

KIOS research has also applications in issues that affect everyday life.

"Our research uses new technology to make various critical infrastructures, such as power systems, renewable energy sources, water supply systems, telecommunications, more efficient, smarter, greener and safer," he said.

He added that they have worked with the Ministry of Health and Water Boards in Cyprus, to improve their systems and to help them make proposals to be included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan for utilisation of EU funds.

During the pandemic the Center developed a system for the Ministry of Health to monitor the cases and take automated decisions, while it has developed another system to automatically detect leaks in the water supply system.

(Source: CNA)