SETI Part 2: The Fermi Paradox in the Age of AI: 8/21/25

👽 Search for Extraterrestrial Technological Intelligence: The Fermi Paradox in the Age of AI: 8/21/25

Date: Thursday, August 21
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Student Center, Multi-Purpose Room, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, 100 Seymour Road, Utica, NY 13502
Presenter: Dr. Emilio Cobanera, Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for Safe and Secure AI Robotics at SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Description: With spectacular suddenness, humanity today finds itself sharing the world with alien intelligences: the artificial intelligences based on foundation models like Chat GPT, Gemini, and others. In this talk I explore the implications of this new fact of life for the Fermi Paradox: the contradiction between the expected, on scientific principles, large number of extraterrestrial technological civilizations in the Milky Way and the complete absence of observable signatures of their impact on the galactic environment. The confirmation that artificial intelligent agents are indeed possible in actuality forces us to re-evaluate proposed solutions of the Fermi paradox that build their arguments on the basis of intelligent robotics and artificial life, and sheds light on the problem of understanding alien cognition systems.
Fee: Free/RSVP Required
Deadline: Register by Wednesday, August 20 at Noon
Participants: 30 (Max)