Vasant Dhar

Biography

Vasant Dhar is an Artificial Intelligence researcher, data scientist and host of the podcast, "Brave New World," which explores how AI and other technologies are transforming humanity. He brought Machine Learning to Wall Street in the 90s, and subsequently founded the Machine-Learning-Based hedge-fund SCT Capital Management. He publishes a regular newsletter at vasantdhar.substack.com.

Dhar’s latest book, Thinking With Machines, tells the story of artificial intelligence from its origins to today from the perspective of one of the first researchers, practitioners, and teachers of this pivotal technology. With over forty-five years of experience in AI, Dhar recounts what brought us here and offers evidence-driven insights that will help individuals, businesses, and society navigate the brave new world of AI. The book poses critical questions that need to be asked, such as:

• Individually and collectively, will AI make us smarter or dumber?

• Should educators encourage the use of AI or try to control its use?

• When should we trust it?

• Could AI divide humanity into those who benefit from it and those who are harmed by it, and what should we do about this?

• Is AI going to outsmart us all from its ability to learn autonomously and assume control?

• What kinds of laws do we need to govern AI before it governs us?

The book tackles pressing issues such as the future of work, public health, and decision-making and asks us, in each case, how much should we abdicate to the machine?

More broadly, Dhar’s research focuses on how risk influences our trust in AI systems, how AI impacts our lives as individuals and collectively, and how we should create a policy for AI governance to create a future in which humans govern AI and not the other way around.

Dhar writes regularly in the media on Artificial Intelligence, societal risks of AI platforms, data governance, privacy, ethics, and trust. He is a frequent speaker in academic and industrial forums.

Professor Dhar teaches courses on Systematic Investing, Data Science, Prediction, and Tech Innovation. He has written over 100 research articles, funded by grants from industry and government agencies such as the National Science Foundation.

Professor Dhar received his Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, and his Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh.

Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI by Vasant Dhar, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble®

Other vendors:

Thinking with Machines a book by Vasant Dhar - Bookshop.org US

Thinking with Machines : The Brave New World of AI by Vasant Dhar

Courses Taught

• Foundations of FinTech
• Introduction to Data Science
• Robo Advisors and Systematic Investing

Academic Background

Ph.D., Artificial Intelligence, 1984
University of Pittsburgh

M.Phil., 1982
University of Pittsburgh

B.Tech., Chemical Engineering, 1978
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi