A Multidisciplinary Take on Artificial Intelligence
Speaker : Dr. Gopalasamy Athithan
Adjunct Professor, NIAS, Bengaluru
Distinguished Visiting Professor, DIAT, Pune
@ gopalasamy.a@diat.ac.in
Chairperson : Prof PM Soundar Rajan
Visiting Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) Bengaluru
@ :pmsdare@nias.res.in
Date : 4th March 2026
Time : 9.30 AM
Venue : Lecture Hall
Abstract: Defining an epochal topic such as the Artificial Intelligence (AI) carefully is a good place to begin. Given its multi-disciplinary nature, AI entails diverse possibilities. Among them, looking at it as a simulation of human intelligence appeals naturally, as it combines aspects of computer science, biology, physics, and mathematics. The next important step is to examine the feasibility of the proposed simulation. For those who believe that all the necessary biology and physics for this step are fully known, the feasibility is a matter of effort and time. For the rest, the defence is yet unknown and unknowable laws of nature. Choosing the former school of thought is the way ahead for proponents of AI. Working for more than a century, neurobiologists have unveiled many fundamental aspects of the living brain. A few of these aspects have proven to be effective in simulating specific faculties of the human brain. Machine Learning (ML) has replaced hand-crafting of AI models. Much progress has been achieved in the major types of ML namely, unsupervised, supervised, generative, and reinforcement types. It is safe to say that the results in computer vision, natural language processing, and sequential games are remarkable, if not stunning. However, the gap between the best ML models and the average human brain is still very large. To bridge this gap, more neurobiological aspects of the human brain need to be coopted. More sophisticated models of ML need to be evolved. Keeping the above outlook as context, the talk will highlight the progression of AI, its status, and the exciting challenges ahead.
About the speaker: Dr. Gopalasamy Athithan received his B.E. (Hons) in Electronics and Communications from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nādu in 1981. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai in 1997. After a stint of seven years in the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), he joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 1988. His work in DAE was on computer graphics, computer-aided design, and modelling of quasicrystal structures. Later, in DRDO, he contributed to the development of parallel computing, scientific data visualisation, and information security solutions. He was a ‘Distinguished Scientist’ and a Director General of DRDO at the time of retirement in 2018. Post retirement, from August 2019 to August 2023, he was with the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Bengaluru as a DRDO Chair. His research interests are artificial intelligence, data mining, and cyber security. He has co-authored two books, one on outlier detection during 2019 and another on cyber security during 2022. He has published around twenty-nine papers in archived journals and around thirty papers in conference proceedings. Presently, he is an Adjunct Professor with the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. From September 2024, he is engaged with the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune as a Distinguished Visiting Professor.