Invitation Key Note Natural Language Programming by Erik Meijer of Palo Alto on 16 February

During the Open University's Computer Science and Information Science study day on 16 February in Utrecht, Erik Meijer of Palo Alto will provide a keynote on Natural Language Programming. KIVI members are welcome to attend this lecture.

The Key Note: Natural language programming: the bridge between humans and AI

According to a recent article in De Volkrant, at least one in three Dutch people use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Dall-E, Midjourney, etc. One of the main reasons for this is that you can communicate with AI systems in natural language. This makes generative AI much more accessible than traditional computing to people who have no programming experience.

However, natural language is an inefficient way to express ideas and instructions precisely. This is why computer scientists create programming languages and scientists mathematical notations. If AI is the future of computing, we need new programming languages to converse with AI systems. In the key note, Erik Meijer presents the design of a natural language-based programming language for instructing AI systems. This AI language is based on techniques that also underpin traditional programming languages.

The cross-fertilisation between AI language models and traditional programming languages opens new avenues for effectively performing complex tasks with AI language models. By harnessing the strengths of both natural language and programming languages, we can bridge the communication gap between humans and AI systems, paving the way for a future of seamless and intuitive interaction with AI.

Who is Erik Meijer?

Dr Erik Meijer is a computer scientist, entrepreneur and working in the US. He obtained his PhD from Radboud University Nijmegen and was UHD in Utrecht and part-time professor at TU Delft and University of Nottingham. He started his own company (Applied Duality), worked with Netflix and Google and at Microsoft and Facebook (Meta) as director of Engineering. Erik has many patents and academic publications to his name.

Register key note

As part of the collective KIVI membership recently concluded by the OU, KIVI members can register as interested parties via this link: https://fd7.formdesk.com/openuniversiteit/aanmelden_studiedag_Informatica_Informatiekunde_160224. For this, you can enter a '0' under student number, choose 'interested party' in the dropdown menu study phase.

You can register for just the Key Note and the bread buffet afterwards, but also for other events. Please check the OU website for this: https://www.ou.nl/-/informatica-studiedag.

  • Date: 16 February
  • Time: 16:50-17:35
  • Location: Domstad Utrecht (near Central Station)