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Dr. Peter Stone is the David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professor and Associate Chair of Computer Science, as well as Chair of the Robotics Portfolio Program, at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2013 he was awarded the University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award and in 2014 he was inducted into the UT Austin Academy of Distinguished Teachers, earning him the title of University Distinguished Teaching Professor. Professor Stone’s research interests in Artificial Intelligence include machine learning (especially reinforcement learning), multiagent systems, robotics, and e-commerce. Professor Stone received his Ph.D in Computer Science in 1998 from Carnegie Mellon University. From 1999 to 2002 he was a Senior Technical Staff Member in the Artificial Intelligence Principles Research Department at AT&T Labs – Research. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, AAAI Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, and 2004 ONR Young Investigator. In 2003, he won an NSF CAREER award for his proposed long term research on learning agents in dynamic, collaborative, and adversarial multiagent environments, in 2007 he received the prestigious IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, given biannually to the top AI researcher under the age of 35, and in 2016 he was awarded the ACM\/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award.<\/p>\n
How did you become interested in AI?<\/h2>\n
The first I remember becoming interested in AI was on a field trip to\u00a0the University of Buffalo when I was in Middle School or early High\u00a0School (I don’t remember which). \u00a0The students rotated through a number\u00a0of science labs and one of the ones I ended up in was a computer science\u00a0“lab.” \u00a0The thing that stands out in my mind is the professor showing us\u00a0pictures of various shapes such as triangles and squares, pointing out\u00a0how easy it was for us to distinguish them, but then asserting that\u00a0nobody knew how to write a computer program to do so (to date myself,\u00a0this must have been the mid ’80s). \u00a0I had already started programming\u00a0computers, but this got me interested in the concept of modeling\u00a0intelligence with computers.<\/p>\n
What made you decide the time was right for an AI startup?<\/h2>\n
Reinforcement learning has been a relatively “niche” area of AI since I\u00a0became interested in it my first year of graduate school. \u00a0But with\u00a0recent advances, I became convinced that now was the time to move to the\u00a0next level and work on problems that are only possible to attack in a\u00a0commercial setting.<\/p>\n
How did I become convinced? \u00a0For that, I owe the credit to Mark Ring,\u00a0one of my co-founders at Cogitai. \u00a0He and I met at the first NIPS\u00a0conference I attended back in the mid ’90s. \u00a0We’ve stayed in touch\u00a0intermittently. \u00a0But then in the fall of 2014 he visited Austin and got\u00a0in touch. \u00a0He pitched the idea to me of starting a company based on\u00a0continual learning, and it just made sense.<\/p>\n
What professional achievement are you most proud of?<\/h2>\n
I’m made proud over and over again by the achievements of my students\u00a0and postdocs. \u00a0I’ve been very fortunate to work with a phenomenal group\u00a0of individuals, both technically and personally. \u00a0Nothing makes me\u00a0happier than seeing each succeed in his or her own way, and to think\u00a0that I played some small role in it.<\/p>\n
What do you wish you had known as a Ph.D. student or early researcher?<\/h2>\n
It’s cliche, but it’s true. \u00a0There’s no better time of life than when\u00a0you’re a Ph.D. student. \u00a0You have the freedom to pursue one idea that\u00a0you’re passionate about to the greatest possible, with very few other\u00a0responsibilities. \u00a0You don’t have the status, appreciation, or salary\u00a0that you deserve and that you’ll eventually inevitably get. \u00a0And yes,\u00a0there are pressures. \u00a0But your job is to learn and to change the world\u00a0in some small way. \u00a0I didn’t appreciate it when I was a student even\u00a0though my advisor (Manuela Veloso) told me. \u00a0And I don’t expect my\u00a0students to believe me when I tell them now. \u00a0But over time I hope they\u00a0come to appreciate it as I have. \u00a0I loved my time as a Ph.D. student.\u00a0But if I had known how many aspects of that time of life would be\u00a0fleeting, I may have appreciated it even more.<\/p>\n
What would you have chosen as your career if you hadn’t gone into AI?<\/h2>\n
I have no idea. \u00a0When I graduated from the University of Chicago as an\u00a0undergrad, I applied to 4 CS Ph.D. programs, the Peace Corps, and Teach\u00a0for America. \u00a0CMU was the only Ph.D. program that admitted me. \u00a0So I\u00a0probably would have done the Peace Corps or Teach for America. \u00a0Who\u00a0knows where that would have led me?<\/p>\n
What is a \u201ctypical\u201d day like for you?<\/h2>\n
I live a very full life. \u00a0Every day I spend as much time with my family\u00a0as they’ll let me (teenagers….) and get some sort of exercise (usually\u00a0either soccer, swimming, running, or biking). \u00a0I also play my violin\u00a0about\u00a03-4 times per week. \u00a0I schedule those things, and other aspects of\u00a0my social life, and then work in all my “free” time. \u00a0That usually means\u00a0catching up on email in the morning, attending meetings with students\u00a0and colleagues either in person or by skype, reading articles, and\u00a0editing students’ papers. \u00a0And I work late at night and on weekends when\u00a0there’s no “fun” scheduled. \u00a0But really, there’s no “typical” day. \u00a0Some\u00a0days I’m consumed with reading; others with proposal writing; others\u00a0with negotiations with prospective employees; others with university\u00a0politics; others with event organization; others with coming up with new\u00a0ideas to burning problems.<\/p>\n
I do a lot of multitasking, and I’m no better at it than anyone else.\u00a0But I’m never bored.<\/p>\n
How do you balance being involved in so many different aspects of the AI community?<\/h2>\n
I don’t know. \u00a0I have many interests and I can’t help but pursue them\u00a0all. \u00a0And I multitask.<\/p>\n
What is your favorite CS or AI-related movie or book and why?<\/h2>\n
Rather than a book, I’ll choose an author. \u00a0As a teenager, I read Isaac\u00a0Asimov’s books voratiously – both his fiction (of course “I, Robot” made\u00a0an impression, but the Foundation series was always my favorite), and\u00a0his non-fiction. \u00a0He influenced my thoughts and imagination greatly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Welcome! \u00a0This column is the third in our series profiling senior AI researchers. This month focuses on Peter Stone, a Professor at the University of Texas Austin and the COO and co-founder of Cogitai, Inc. Peter Stone’s Bio Dr. Peter Stone is the David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professor and Associate Chair of Computer Science, as … Continue reading “AI Matters Interview with Peter Stone”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/aimatters\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/aimatters\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/aimatters\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/aimatters\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/aimatters\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/aimatters\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/aimatters\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/aimatters\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/aimatters\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/aimatters\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}