Hellenic-American Cultural Foundation

THE HELLENIC-AMERICAN CULTURAL FOUNDATION WELCOMED AWARD-WINNING MIT PROFESSOR AND COMPUTER SCIENTIST, CONSTANTINOS DASKALAKIS, TO DISCUSS THE STATE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AL). WHILE AI HAS MADE GREAT ADVANCES IN CHANGING MANY FACETS OF OUR LIVES, IT IS ALSO BECOMING INCREASINGLY CLEAR THAT AI POSES SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES. AI OFTEN FAILS TO WORK WELL IN NOVEL ENVIRONMENTS AND HAS THE POTENTIAL TO AMPLIFY STEREOTYPES AND BIASES THAT EXIST IN THE DATA USED TO "TRAIN" IT. DR. DASKALAKIS CRITICALLY EXAMINED THE DEVELOPMENTS IN AI FROM A COMBINED SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PERSPECTIVE, REVEALING INTIMATE CONNECTIONS TO MATHEMATICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AS AVENUES TO OVERCOME THESE CHALLENGES. HE ALSO HIGHLIGHTED THE NEW ARCHIMEDES CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN GREECE AND HOW IT PLANS TO ADVANCE AI RESEARCH. FOLLOWING IN THE TRADITION OF ARCHIMEDES, DASKALAKIS' ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE ARE WELL ESTABLISHED. HE HAS WORKED ON COMPUTATION THEORY AND ITS INTERFACE WITH GAME THEORY, ECONOMICS, PROBABILITY THEORY, MACHINE LEARNING AND STATISTICS AND HAS RESOLVED LONG-STANDING PROBLEMS ABOUT THE COMPUTATIONAL COMPLEXITY OF NASH EQUILIBRIUM, AND MULTI-ITEM AUCTIONS. CONSTANTINOS NOW FOCUSES ON HIGH-DIMENSIONAL STATISTICS AND MACHINE LEARNING. IN 2018 HE WON THE PRESTIGIOUS NEVANLINNA PRIZE AND HAS BEEN HONORED WITH A NUMBER OF OTHER SIGNIFICANT AWARDS.THE HELLENIC-AMERICAN CULTURAL FOUNDATION, IN CELEBRATION OF ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY, COMMISSIONED FOR THE FIRST TIME A NEW WORK BY A MAJOR COMPOSER OF GREEK DESCENT. THE NEW YORK PREMIERE OF GEORGE TSONTAKIS' PORTRAITS BY EL GRECO BOOK II, ALONG WITH OTHER SELECTIONS FROM BEETHOVEN, BRAHMS AND BARTK, WAS PERFORMED BY FIVE WORLD RENOWNED MUSICIANS. GEORGE TSONTAKIS, THE 2005 RECIPIENT OF THE PRESTIGIOUS GRAWEMEYER AWARD FOR MUSIC COMPOSITION, WAS CALLED BY GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE "A GIANT OF THE AMERICAN MUSIC SCENE." IN HIS NEW WORK, MR. TSONTAKIS COMBINED PROJECTED IMAGES OF THE GREAT PAINTER'S WORK WITH A CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SETTING.THE QUINTET OF PERFORMERS INCLUDED: MARIA ASTERIADOU, AN ACCLAIMED SOLOIST AND CHAMBER MUSICIAN, AND HERALDED AS "AN ARTIST WITH INTENSE PERSONALITY, VIRTUOSIC FLAIR, UNUSUAL POISE AND INTIMATE CONTACT WITH STYLE" BY THE NEW YORK TIMES; GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING ZUILL BAILEY WIDELY CONSIDERED ONE OF THE PREMIER CELLISTS IN THE WORLD; GREEK CLARINETIST SPYROS MOURIKIS WINNER OF THE 1997 CARL NIELSEN INTERNATIONAL CLARINET COMPETITION, HAS PLAYED EXTENSIVELY THROUGHOUT GREECE AND EUROPE; VIOLINIST KURT NIKKANEN CONSIDERED A SOLOIST OF THE HIGHEST ORDER, A GRADUATE OF JUILLIARD AND, PRESENTLY, THE CONCERTMASTER OF THE NEW YORK CITY BALLET ORCHESTRA; AND RITA PORFIRIS AN AMERICAN VIOLINIST AND ARRANGER OF GREEK AND CHINESE DESCENT, WHO HAS PERFORMED ACROSS THE GLOBE AS A CHAMBER MUSICIAN, ORCHESTRAL MUSICIAN AND SOLOIST.