Meet the PARC Intern: Jacob Le Explains Explainable AI

Tell us Jacob, what have you been working on so far at PARC?

Since starting my internship program with PARC this past July, I’ve been working mostly on an Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) Science project within the Interaction and Analytics Laboratory (IAL) group.

What is Explainable AI?

Explainable AI attempts to allow a human user to understand the decisions and actions of artificial intelligence. The goal is to help the human user better understand, trust and work together with the AI. Our project aims to develop an interactive sense-making system called COGLE (COmmon Ground Learning and Explanation), which can explain the learned performance capabilities of autonomous systems to human users.

How do you hope this project might impact the world?

Well, I think there are many myths and misunderstandings when it comes to artificial intelligence. I hope our work will help people get a better understanding of how AI works and establish common ground between concepts and abstractions used by humans and the capabilities learned by a machine.

How does your project intersect with your studies?

I’m currently studying Computer Science and one of my main interests is artificial intelligence / user interaction. Working with the IAL group here at PARC has allowed me to work with some very interesting people in the field and given me valuable insight I hope to apply directly to my program.

What have you enjoyed most about interning at PARC?

My managers and colleagues have a lot of experience and knowledge, especially when it comes to AI. Working and conversing with them, whether in the lab or over lunch at the cafeteria, is never boring and I feel like I learn something new every day.

If you could invent anything, what would it be?

That’s easy. A device that could locate anything in the universe.

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