Prof. Subbarao Kambhampati, Department of Computer Science at Arizona State University gave a talk on Synthesizing Explainable Behavior for Human-AI Collaboration on 24 July.

As AI technologies enter our daily lives at an ever increasing pace, there is a greater need for AI systems to work synergistically with humans. This requires AI systems to exhibit behavior that is explainable to humans. Synthesizing such behavior requires AI systems to reason not only with their own models of the task at hand, but also about the mental models of the human collaborators. Prof. Kambhampati used several case-studies from his group’s ongoing research and discussed how multi-model planning forms the basis for explainable behavior.

Prof. Kambhampati studies fundamental problems in planning and decision making, motivated in particular by the challenges of human-aware AI systems. He is a fellow of AAAI and AAAS, was an NSF Young Investigator and has received multiple teaching awards, including a university last lecture recognition. Kambhampati is the past president of AAAI and was a trustee of IJCAI. He was the program chair for IJCAI 2016 , ICAPS 2013, AAAI 2005 and AIPS 2000. He served on the board of directors of Partnership on AI. Prof. Kambhampati’s research as well as his views on the progress and societal impacts of AI have been featured in multiple national and international media outlets.