AI That Empowers: Amplifying Potential, Reducing Risks, and Rethinking Workflows

Pattie Maes is a professor at MIT’s Media Lab where she does research at the intersection of Human Computer Interaction and Artificial Intelligence. Maes pioneered the concept of Software Agents in the 90s and remains focused on the question of how software systems and novel devices can augment people and assist them with issues such as memory, learning, decision making and wellbeing. Maes is the editor of four books, has published over 500 peer-reviewed articles, and is an editorial board member and reviewer for numerous professional journals and conferences. She has received several awards: Netguru selected her for “Hidden Heroes: the people who shaped technology” (2022), Time Magazine has included several of her designs in its annual list of inventions of the year; the American Association for Artificial Intelligence gave her the “classic paper 2012” prize, awarded to the most influential AI paper of the year; Fast Company named her one of 50 most influential designers (2011); Newsweek picked her as one of the “100 Americans to watch for” (2000); TIME Digital selected her as a member of the “Cyber Elite,” the top 50 technological pioneers of the high-tech world; the World Economic Forum honored her with the title “Global Leader for Tomorrow”; Ars Electronica awarded her the 1995 World Wide Web category prize; and in 2000 she was recognized with the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council. She also received honorary doctorates from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and Open Universiteit, Netherlands, and has given several TED talks. In addition to her academic endeavors, Maes has been an active entrepreneur as co-founder of several venture backed companies, including Firefly Networks (sold to Microsoft), Open Ratings (sold to Dun & Bradstreet) and Tulip Co (privately held). Prior to joining the MIT Media Lab, Maes was a visiting professor and a research scientist at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. She received her PhD degree in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.