Lecture: “What Is an Algorithm?”

Triolet Campus, Polytech, Building 31, Serge Peytavin Lecture Hall – Place Eugène Bataillon, 34090 Montpellier.

Professor Pascal Nouvel, a philosopher, will give a lecture at Polytech Montpellier titled “What Is an Algorithm?”: Developments in artificial intelligence have sparked numerous debates about the role it may soon play in human societies.

The range of possibilities opened up by these techniques inspires both enthusiasm and concern. At the heart of all these systems lie algorithms. In this lecture, I will therefore begin by asking: What is an algorithm? I will expand on this by asking: What gives an algorithm the unique ability to “recognize patterns”? Indeed, “pattern recognition” is another—and perhaps more accurate—term for artificial intelligence. In this regard, I will ask where the equation between intelligence (artificial or otherwise) and pattern recognition comes from. This simple question leads, as we shall see, to a revisiting of the entire history of philosophy.

Pascal Nouvel, Ph.D. in Science (Biology) and Ph.D. in Letters (Philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tours, member of the Education, Ethics, and Health Research Group (EA 7505), and Director of the Center for Ethics and Contemporary Philosophy.

He is the author of *The Art of Loving Science* (PUF, 2000), *An Inquiry into the Concept of the Model* (2003, ed.), The Possible and Biotechnologies (PUF, 2003, with Claude Debru), History of Amphetamines (PUF, 2009), The Philosophy of Science (PUF, 2011), Axiomatics of Feelings (Hermann, 2015).

This lecture will be followed by a panel discussion titled “The Challenges of Interdisciplinarity for a Sustainable World.”

• In the presence of:
  . Mokrane Bouzehoub, Professor at UVSQ, Deputy Scientific Director of the CNRS Institute of Information Sciences and Their Interactions (INS2i),
• Michel Robert, Professor at the University of Montpellier and Head of the Department of Institutional Evaluation at HCERES,
• Wilfried Sanchez, Deputy Scientific Director at IFREMER,
• Bertrand Fourcade, Professor at the University of Grenoble Alpes,
• François Pierrot, DR CNRS, Executive Director of I-SITE MUSE.

Registration for the conference/roundtable and the cocktail reception is free but must be completed by July 4.

• Register online