“The urgency of science has never been greater,” said Darío Gil, a senior vice president at IBM, at Monday's Ph.D. graduation ceremony.
The need for scientific progress has never been greater, he said Dario Gilworld leader in quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
But these discoveries also require an overriding sense of responsibility, Gil added in his speech at Northeastern University's newest Ph.D. graduates.
Gil, IBM's senior vice president and director of its research lab, made his remarks at Monday's Doctor of Philosophy Commencement and Graduation Ceremony at Matthews Arena on the university's Boston campus.
At IBM, Gil led the development of the world's first programmable quantum computers available in the cloud. He also co-chairs the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, advocating for AI to be sustained on globally accessible platforms.
“As one of the world's leading experts in quantum computing, you lead IBM's breakthroughs in a technology once considered science fiction, harnessing the power and speed of our universe as building blocks to be the data processors of the future.” Northeastern Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs David Madigan said in presenting a citation to Gil.
“Deeply aware of the opportunities these new technologies offer to enrich all of our lives, yours has been a strong voice for keeping the innovations emerging from the world's tech labs open, accessible and transparent,” Madigan continued. .
Gil talked about the joys of what he called his “dream job” at IBM, a community of more than 3,000 researchers that has employed six Nobel Prize winners.
“You've received the best education and research experience the world has to offer,” Gil told Northeastern's Ph.D. graduates. “And you have a responsibility to use it. Why; Because the urgency of science has never been greater. The world has not run out of problems to solve.”
He referred to students' expertise in the scientific method as a “superpower” that comes with great responsibility.
“Not only must we cultivate the creative powers of science and technology to solve problems, but we must also take active responsibility for their proper governance,” Gil said. “Because we are witnessing the rise of technology as the basis of every institution's and every nation's competitive advantage.”
Hoping to inspire each student to develop their own constructive approach, Gil shared two personal stories that provided him with insight and perspective long before he joined IBM as a researcher in 2003.
At 16, he said, his older brother gave him a book of essays by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin.
“A year later, I left for the United States to continue my education and—perhaps fascinated by the immigrant sensibility that allowed Berlin to see what others could not—I began reading his work,” Gil said. “Berlin had no grand unifying idea of history or human experience. In fact, more than anything else he wanted us to understand that not everything can or should be related to a single ideal, that there is no perfect cocktail of justice, liberty and freedom.'
Gil offered another anecdote taken from the living room of his childhood home in Madrid, where he fell in love with the Spanish cellist's music Pablo Casals — especially the interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach Six Suites for Solo Cello. Gil learned to value Bach's music as “an attempt to connect the human experience with that which we cannot approach.”
“But what do these stories of Berlin and Bach tell us specifically about the future that has yet to unfold?” Gil asked. “We must learn modesty from Berlin. There is no great solution to the quest to expand the range of human capabilities through science and technology.”
Gil warned that “there are no easy answers and there are no shortcuts”, that the “moral and ethical implications of our scientific and technological progress” must be addressed.
“Computer vision with artificial intelligence, software that helps us discover new planets and stars, or increase the accuracy of medical diagnosis are perfectly reasonable things to pursue – which cannot be said for a ubiquitous and unregulated use of facial recognition software in our societies. ,” Gil said, noting that IBM decided in June 2020 to stop commercializing generic facial recognition technology.
“From Bach we must be inspired to seek that which is eternal,” said Gil. “There is much beyond us, and through music Bach brought us closer to experiencing this truth. Like music, the expansion of our intelligence – which for example is what AI can do for us – can be a vehicle to understand the nature of our existence and help us adapt to the inevitable changes we face.”
