Please join Charlottesville Data Science for the talk Testing and Evaluating AI-powered Capabilities in Mission-Critical Situations from May Casterline! We'll be gathering in person at the Castle Hill Gaming office by the Shops at Stonefield.

How to find us

Castle Hill Gaming is located at 2065 Inglewood Drive, next to the Hyatt at the Shops at Stonefield. We occupy the ground floor of a building about 10 feet above street level; there are three floors of apartments above us, but don't be confused! Parking is located along Inglewood Drive and behind the Hyatt; walk to the closest corner and down the sidewalk to the Castle Hill front door in the middle of the block. "2065" will be above the door.

About the talk

Many organizations are exploring integrating modern AI capabilities throughout their systems and operations. Organizations that work in high-stakes or "mission-critical" situations, however, face distinctive challenges when adopting AI technology. These organizations often have robust, long-standing policies and practices governing how to test and evaluate new tools and technologies to ensure they are reliable, safe, and effective. Given the "black box", self-learning, adaptive, and data-centric nature of AI, existing testing and evaluation procedures usually do not fully translate to new, AI-enabled systems. To build sufficient levels of confidence to deploy AI capabilities in mission-critical scenarios, organizations need to develop and promote new, AI-specific test and evaluation procedures.

May Casterline recently co-chaired a study for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine exploring the adoption of AI-enabled systems at the US Department of the Air Force. In this talk, May will share and summarize her committee's findings and recommendations about how the Air Force can develop and field AI effectively, safely, and responsibly. Many of these insights may apply more broadly across any organization trying to harness the potential of AI in high-stakes, mission-critical situations.