Compassionate Artificial Intelligence
Dr. Cindy Mason is an interdisciplinary scientist/programmer who has been working on AI, philosophies of mind, and esoteric therapies for the last 15 years. She has a Ph.D. in Computer Science as well as certifications in Oriental Body Therapy and is a qualified Psychophysiophilosophy Practitioner in the practice of Jin Shin Jyutsu.Cindy is currently a visiting scientist at Stanford Research Institute and co-chair of Philosophy and Technology at U.C. Berkeley and U. Helsinki. She has received numerous awards including the American Association for AI award for outstanding research on Distributed AI performed in the testban treaty verification group at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and the National Research Council Associateship at NASA Ames Research Center, where she developed a cooperative robot team to explore unknown terrain in a simulated Mars/Lunar environment. She has recently been nominated to be included in the Australian National Museum for Pioneering Women for helping to transition the outback of Australia from radio to computers and the internet (Outback IT.)
Recently she worked with bone -marrow cancer patients undergoing stem cell transplant procedures, at Stanford Hospital using psychophysiophilosophy, a practice based on the art of compassion through touch. Using this methodology, patients shaved an average of 21 days off the average hospital stay for this procedure. She then worked with Professor McCarthy’s AI group at Stanford CS Dept. bringing these practical human experiences of the power of compassion back into AI. Cindy was also a key researcher on the NY Times Bestseller book, The Mind and How to Build One, by R. Kurzweil.
Dr. Mason brings her real world experiences working with people – in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and senior centers in the Stanford area, as an inspiration to architect and program advanced AI computer systems with a capacity for positive emotion, compassion and human empowerment. Her primary interests include innovative technologies for society and health, and diversity and multi-cultural awareness in science and society.
I spoke with Cindy about her work on Compassionate Intelligence and emotional programming and the importance of the heart brain for robotics and AI, and the impacts of recent breakthroughs in AI and what this can mean for society if we don’t get it right.
Listen to or download the interview with Dr. Cindy Mason
To find out more about Cindy’s work, visit:
To learn about some of the breakthroughs in AI from the methodology of Deep Learning, (mentioned in the interview), watch this important TED Talk:
To read one of Dr. Mason’s key published papers on AI and Compassion:
To watch a special youtube video of Cindy with Cheryl Gasner, R.N., a very special person, who spent 10 years of her life helping to cofound the Integrative Mind Body Program at Stanford. In the film Cheryl and Cindy are in the cardiology unit talking about Mind-Body healing, while Cheryl is recovering from open heart surgery. Its called “Sick-Em!” The film is short, and it shows them in the beginning of a psychophysiophilosophy session.
And here’s some images related to the interview I did with Cindy:
