DIFFER seminar: Towards the Next Generation of Artificial Intelligence: Frontiers and Future Directions

Abstract: Artificial intelligence is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by recent advances in AI agents, multimodal foundation models, and embodied intelligence. These developments are extending AI beyond traditional information processing toward autonomous perception, reasoning, decision-making, and closed-loop interaction with the physical world.

This talk provides an overview of the emerging frontiers of next-generation AI, highlighting fundamental scientific challenges, core methodologies, and recent research advances in AI agents and embodied intelligence. It further discusses the evolving role of AI in scientific discovery, autonomous experimentation, and interdisciplinary research, and offers perspectives on future directions for AI at the intersection of computation, robotics, and the physical sciences.