CS Seminar: Ritwik Gupta

Description

Ritwik Gupta, a doctoral student with the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research, will give a talk titled "Making AI Work in the Crucible: Perception and Reasoning in Chaotic Environments" in a seminar hosted by the Department of Computer Science.

Abstract:

Disasters like wildfires and wars are increasing in frequency and severity, creating environments where chaos reigns. In these moments, AI holds the potential to revolutionize disaster response—helping first responders stay safe, saving lives, and guiding critical decision-making. Yet current AI systems often fail when faced with the realities of such environments; they assume clean data from reliable sensors, predictable conditions, and well-defined tasks—assumptions that collapse in the face of noisy inputs, shifting contexts, and incomplete information. In this talk, Ritwik Gupta will present a vision for building AI systems that thrive in these complex, high-stakes scenarios. He will explore the core challenges: working with gigapixel images that defy traditional compute paradigms, understanding data from non-visible modalities like synthetic aperture radar, integrating multimodal information from disparate sensors, and making sense of rapidly changing conditions. Tackling these challenges requires fundamentally rethinking AI architectures to account for scalability, adaptability, and robustness—whether by introducing physics-aware models, sensor-in-the-loop designs, or multimodal systems capable of reasoning over fragmented and noisy inputs. Beyond technical challenges, Gupta will discuss how AI policy must evolve to bridge the gap between civilian and military applications. By addressing regulatory bottlenecks, dual-use technologies can be deployed responsibly and equitably in both disaster response and defense scenarios. This dual approach—spanning foundational AI research and policy innovation—will help unlock the potential of AI in the world's most chaotic environments.