Conference "What is an algorithm?"

Campus Triolet, Polytech, bât 31, amphi Serge Peytavin - Place Eugène Bataillon, 34090 Montpellier.

Professor Pascal Nouvel, philosopher, will give a lecture at Polytech Montpellier on "What are Algorithms?" Developments in the field of artificial intelligence have given rise to much debate about the role it could soon play in human society.

The extent of the possibilities opened up by these techniques arouses both enthusiasm and concern. At the heart of all these devices are always algorithms. In this talk, I shall begin by asking the question: what is an algorithm? I'll extend it by asking: what is it that gives an algorithm the particular ability to "recognize shapes"? Indeed, "pattern recognition" is the other, perhaps more accurate, name for artificial intelligence. In this connection, I'd like to ask where the assimilation between intelligence (artificial or otherwise) and pattern recognition comes from. As we shall see, this simple question leads us to revisit the entire history of philosophy.

Pascal Nouvel, Doctor of Science (biology) and Doctor of Letters (philosophy), Professor of Philosophy, University of Tours, member of the Education Ethique et Santé team (EA 7505), Director of the Centre d'Ethique et de Philosophie Contemporaine.

He is the author of L'art d'aimer la science (PUF, 2000), Enquête sur le concept de modèle (2003, s. dir), Le possible et les biotechnologies (PUF, 2003, with Claude Debru), Histoire des ampétamines (PUF, 2009), La philosophie des sciences (PUF, 2011), Axiomatique des sentiments (Hermann, 2015).

This conference will be followed by a round-table discussion on "The challenges of interdisciplinarity for a sustainable world".

• In the presence of :
  Mokrane Bouzehoub, Pr. UVSQ, Deputy Scientific Director of the CNRS Institut des sciences de l'information et de leurs interactions (INS2i),
• Michel Robert, Pr. University of Montpellier, head of the HCERES institutional evaluation department,
• Wilfried Sanchez, Deputy Scientific Director, IFREMER,
• Bertrand Fourcade, Professor, Grenoble Alpes University,
• François Pierrot, DR CNRS, Executive Director I-SITE MUSE.

Registration for the conference/round-table and cocktail reception is free but compulsory before July 4.

• Register online