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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 MARCH 2024 6 INTERVIEW Alexiei Dingli: 'AI is not just doom and gloom, but beware' I grew up reading science fiction and I remain to this day a sci-fi addict, so the concept of artificial intelligence is not new to me. So, I was very pleased when Alexiei confessed that he actually got in- to AI because of science fiction. Like me he was fascinated and mesmerised by the worlds created by the likes of Isaac Asi- mov and Robert Heinlein. But, unlike me, he decided to do something about it. "I read or see something amazing, and I think, 'Can I do it?' Probably I don't, but if I manage to do 20% or 30%, it's already better than nothing," he says. "Science fiction allows us to dream of what's pos- sible and what's coming." Alexiei admits that sci-fi might have given many people a wrong impression of AI. It's not only about robots gaining awareness and taking over the world, he says. But he does acknowledge that AI will eventually progress to a point where machines gain self-awareness. That is on the cards, he says, although he remains sceptical about machines gaining full sentience any time soon. "We still do not fully understand the human brain," he says. "We might be able to simulate it, but we will not see full machine sentience any time soon." As to his pitch on Shark Tank, Alexiei explains that the aim is to get a machine to process and analyse the data from traf- fic sensors on our roads, like cameras and tidal lanes, and recommend imme- diate solutions for a human to approve or discard. He got €1 million on Shark Tank but he will be seeking more investment from the private sector as the project progresses. He admits that he had been in talks with the government to obtain funding but says the process was so long, with no guarantee that he would obtain the fund- ing. "There was and is no time to waste, and that is why I had to seek private invest- ment," he says. Just fresh from securing a record investment on Shark Tank, artificial intelligence expert Prof. Alexiei Dingli speaks to PAUL COCKS about the traffic management project he is working on, but also on his understanding of AI, the threats and challenges it poses and his vision of the world of the future I am a fan of science fiction; I read or see something amazing, and I think, 'Can I do it?' Science fiction allows us to dream of what's possible and what's coming. But it also causes a big problem.