This seminar integrates three perspectives on the future of AI — cognitive computing, world models, and the new knowledge discovery process — that collectively illuminate the path ahead.
Cognitive computing is the integrated study of AI, cognitive psychology, and neurobiology. It is a foundation for information systems that model human intelligence more precisely, generate explainable outputs, and address human limitations. Humans have inherited and developed multiple models of the world. Relying primarily on one model, LLMs, is insufficient to model intelligence. AI needs to incorporate multiple world models: the approximately 360 functional modules of the brain and many theories and frameworks developed by scholars for domains such as individual and organisational behaviour, physics, chemistry, and biology. AlphaFold, software for predicting protein folding, introduced a new knowledge discovery process that uses deep learning to model behaviour. It is a blueprint for a new era of research.
Event Details
Date: Monday 27 July 2026
Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm
Venue: J Block Auditorium, Lismore Campus
Date: Tuesday 28 July 2026
Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm
Venue: Building C Theatre, Gold Coast Campus
Presenter
Rick Watson
Richard (Rick) Watson, Regents Professor and J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Chair Emeritus at the University of Georgia, is a former President of the Association for Information Systems.
For a decade, he served as Research Director for the Advanced Practices Council of the Society of Information Management and as a visiting researcher at the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE). In 2021, the University of Liechtenstein awarded him an honorary doctorate. He has published over 200 journal articles and 30 books on topics such as eCommerce, data management, and energy informatics. His most recent books are Capital, Systems, and Objects and Causal Knowledge Analytics.
His work has been published by leading journals and translated into several languages. Dr. Watson has given >350 invited presentations in > 40 countries, including keynotes on six continents. Rick is an Australian - educated at UWA (BSc, Dip. Comp), Monash (MBA), and the University of Minnesota (PhD).