Artificial Intelligence Colloquium - Dr. Maruf Dhali (RUG Groningen, NL)

Title:

Beyond Scrolls: Forging a future of human-centric AI in data-scarce, multimodal, and high-stakes domains

Abstract:

This colloquium will present the challenges and transformative opportunities of AI and ML, with a focus on their implications for data-scarce and sensitive domains. Building on extensive experiences with projects like the Dead Sea Scrolls and HAICu, this talk will address ongoing challenges, such as poor data quality, limited labels, and the complexities of multimodality in real-world applications.While LLMs have shown many successes, their dependence on large datasets and difficulties in managing data provenance limit their direct use in high-stakes domains where data privacy, accuracy, and user control are important. Hence, the presentation will then explore promising solutions from few-shot, semi-supervised, self-supervised, active, and continual learning paradigms alongside advancements in robust and explainable AI and the essential considerations for the trustworthiness of the designed systems. Through illustrative examples from applications in historical, cultural, medical, and industrial contexts, the presentation will articulate a forward-looking research vision that champions innovative, ethically grounded, and human-centric AI/ML systems—pushing beyond classical pattern recognition towards self-evolving, context-aware technologies capable of responsible reasoning and adaptation in dynamic environments.