10 years ago the world lost one of the greatest AI scientists of our time, Prof. Caro Lucas. I’m super-proud and lucky to had him as my mentor and advisor and together we created BELBIC and the BEL (Brain Emotional Learning) algorithm, one of the most robust and lightweight algorithms based on emotional AI. That was in early 2000s, way before AI became a trend. While for a long time, emotion was considered as a negative factor hindering the rational decision-making process, it has now become clear that far from being a negative trait in biology, emotions are important positive forces crucial for intelligent behavior in natural as well as artificial systems.
I was a medical student at the University of Tehran, skipping my classes to attend Caro’s classes. After a few months, he asked what I studied and I told him the truth. He was so impressed with my determination to learn AI that he took me to his lab, and I started working with him. That was the start of our friendship which lasted for 8 years. He was humble, funny, energetic, caring to his students, and a real genius. Caro was 60 when he died of medical malpractice.
Photo courtesy of Prof. Jon Pearce, taken in Armenia.
#geniuses #berkeley #universityoftehran #BELBIC #ai #artificialintelligence #neuralnetworks
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