Artificial intelligence

ChatGPT is catalyzing a paradigm shift in artificial and natural intelligence. How does it work and why is it surprising experts? And what are the implications for the future? As a world leader in artificial intelligence with a history of challenging convention, UC Berkeley is shaping the future of this burgeoning field while exploring the larger implications of AI on society.

The Berkeley lectures on the status and future of AI

The primary architect of ChatGPT and leading Berkeley AI faculty will present insights and viewpoints in a series of seven public lectures presented by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute, Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR), Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), the Academic Senate and UC Berkeley.

Each event is being held in person (locations are in the event descriptions) and most will be available virtually (links provided below). All lectures are scheduled for one hour.

Read more about the AI lecture series on Berkeley News.

The Sensorimotor Road to Artificial Intelligence

Date: 03/20/2023 04:00pm
Speaker: Jitendra Malik, Arthur J. Chick Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences
Sponsor: Martin Meyerson Berkeley Faculty Research Lectures
Link to view: Watch Malik's lecture

How Not to Destroy the World With AI

Date: 04/05/2023 12:00pm
Speaker: Stuart Russell, Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: CITRIS Research Exchange and BAIR
Link to view: Watch Russell's lecture

Imitation and Innovation in AI: What Four-year-olds Can Do and AI Can’t (Yet)

Date: 04/12/2023 12:00pm
Speaker: Alison Gopnik, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: CITRIS Research Exchange and BAIR
Link to view: Watch Gopnik's lecture

How AI Fails Us, and How Economics Can Help

Date: 04/19/2023 12:00pm
Speaker: Mike Jordan, Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: CITRIS Research Exchange and BAIR
Link to view: Watch Jordan's lecture

ChatGPT and OpenAI

Date: 04/19/2023 05:00pm
Speaker: John Schulman, Research Scientist and cofounder of OpenAI
Sponsor: EECS and BAIR

Generative AI Meets Copyright Law

Date: 04/26/2023 12:00pm
Speaker: Pam Samuelson, Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: CITRIS Research Exchange and BAIR
Link to view: Watch Samuelson's lecture

Exploration vs Exploitation: Different Ways of Pushing AI and Robotics Forward

Date: 04/28/2023 12:00pm
Speaker: Rod Brooks, MIT Professor Emeritus and Robust.AI
Sponsor: BAIR Robotics Symposium

Related AI lectures and webinars

First Contact

Date: 03/17/2023 11:00am
Speaker: Sebastien Bubeck, Sr. Principal Research Manager at Microsoft Research
Sponsor: CLIMB and FODSI

NIST’s AI risk management framework & trustworthy AI

Date: 03/14/2023 04:00pm
Speaker: Multiple
Sponsor: Berkeley Law
Event details: AI risk management webinar
Link to view: Online

“The promise of AI lies in its ability to help us solve some of the biggest challenges facing humanity, from climate change to disease prevention. But we must also recognize that these systems have the potential to exacerbate existing inequalities and biases if not designed and deployed thoughtfully.”
Jennifer Chayes, Associate Provost of UC Berkeley and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

U.S. News & World Report rankings

#1 in undergraduate data science and computer science programs
#2 in graduate computer science programs
#4 in undergraduate and graduate artificial intelligence programs

Academics and research

AI is a significant focus for many areas around campus. Below are some examples of labs, programs, previous lectures, and more.

  • Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR) | The BAIR Lab brings together UC Berkeley researchers across the areas of computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing, planning, control, and robotics.
  • Berkeley Law AI Institute | A multi-day, online executive academy to help lawyers understand AI technology and how companies use it, as well as the risks and ethical issues raised by autonomous systems.
  • Berkeley AI Policy Hub | A collaboration between the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC) and its AI Security Initiative and the CITRIS Policy Lab, the AI Policy Hub is a multidisciplinary initiative training forward-thinking graduate student researchers to develop effective governance and policy frameworks to guide artificial intelligence, today and into the future.
  • Berkeley [Emergent Space Tensegrities | Energy and Sustainable Technologies | Expert Systems Technologies ] (BEST) Lab | The BEST Lab conducts research at the intersection of cutting-edge frontiers in design research, computational design, sustainability, gender equity, human-machine cognition, supervisory control, soft robotics, sensor fusion, design research and intelligent learning systems.
  • The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS) | CITRIS and the Banatao Institute is a University of California research center focused on creating IT solutions that generate societal and economic benefits for everyone.
  • Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS) | CDSS leverages Berkeley’s preeminence in research and excellence across disciplines to propel data science discovery, education, and impact.
  • Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) | EECS offers one of the strongest research and instructional programs anywhere in the world with an array of cross-disciplinary, team-driven projects.
  • Haas ExecEd: AI Strategies and Applications | Participants in this program learn about AI’s current capabilities and gain an understanding into the variety of ways AI can benefit different business functions.
  • Tech Policy Fellows | Offers scholars and practitioners the opportunity to spend six months to a year as a non-residential fellow at UC Berkeley to conduct research, share expertise and experiences with faculty, staff, and students and develop technical or policy interventions that support responsible technology development and use.
  • Our Better Web | An independent interdisciplinary initiative at Berkeley that brings together leadership from the Schools of Information; Journalism; Law; and Public Policy; the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society; and the CITRIS Policy Lab. Our Better Web researches and provides guidance on technical and policy strategies to mitigate harms from algorithmic amplification and algorithmic bias online.
AI generated image of

AI and the arts

Cal Performances: Illuminations – “Human and Machine”

Generative Art and Deep Learning AI

CITRIS Tech Museum

Artwork on this page

The image above, “Cloud Computing,” was created in Midjourney. The prompt specified that the image include “a supercomputer floating in the sky surrounded by cumulonimbus clouds.” To achieve a wide-angle format, the background of the image was extended in Dall-E-2 using the “outpainting” feature.

The below image is a UC Berkeley-inspired collage constructed from images generated in Dall-E-2. The prompts used to generate the imagery included specific campus landmarks, such as “the Campanile,” “Sproul Hall,” “Doe Library,” and “Memorial Stadium.”

AI generated image of UC Berkeley