News Express: William Shiyuan Wang gives talk at UM on evolution of Homo sapiens
新聞快訊：王士元於澳大談智人演化歷程
王士元
William Shiyuan Wang
王士元於澳大談智人演化歷程
澳門大學今（1）日舉行“澳門大學榮譽博士講座”，由澳大榮譽博士王士元以“六百萬年的智人之旅”為題發表演講。他結合人類學、考古學、遺傳學、認知神經科學等學科取得的成果，回顧了智人600萬年的演化歷程，並就人工智能的發展等前沿問題展開深刻的討論，吸引一眾澳大師生及各界人士參與。
王士元是世界著名語言學家、香港理工大學語言與認知科學講座教授及台灣中央研究院院士。講座上，他從“智人如何演化為地球的主人”作為切入點，指出人類與同屬靈長目的黑猩猩在約600萬年前分道揚鑣，逐漸轉變為雙足直立，帶來了兩個顯著的變化。第一，開始製造工具，進一步刺激腦容量的新增和神經緊密連接；第二，發明語言，使溝通方式變得強大。因此，人類能夠同時依靠生物演化和文化演化，在漫長的演變之旅中加速傳遞創新，成為地球的主宰。
提及近年迅速崛起並日趨成熟的人工智能技術，王士元認為人工智能雖然功能強大，但不可忽視其潛在的巨大風險，需要加強對新人文學科的重視，深化對人類及其認知、情感和道德價值的深刻認識，才能降低以人工智能為代表的機器的風險與誘惑，屆時可以期待人類與機器緊密相處、協同創造的和諧社會。
是次講座由澳大人文學院英文系系主任Andrew Moody主持。講座後，澳大人文學院院長、語言學研究中心主任徐杰向王士元贈送紀念品，現場氣氛熱烈。
欲瀏覽官網版可登入以下連結:
https://www.um.edu.mo/zh-hant/news-and-press-releases/campus-news/detail/57272/
William Shiyuan Wang gives talk at UM on evolution of Homo sapiens
The University of Macau held a Doctor honoris cause Lecture today (1 December). Prof William Shiyuan Wang, honorary doctor of UM, gave a talk titled ‘SAPIENS—a Journey of 6 Million Years’. Referencing findings from fields such as anthropology, archaeology, genetics, and cognitive neuroscience, Prof Wang examined the six-million-year evolution of Homo sapiens and engaged in in-depth discussions on cutting-edge topics such as the development of artificial intelligence (AI). The event attracted many UM faculty and students, as well as people from different sectors of the community.
Prof Wang is a world-renowned linguist, a chair professor of language and cognitive science at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and an academician of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He started the talk by explaining how Homo sapiens evolved to become the dominant species on Earth, and pointed out that humans and chimpanzees, who are both part of the primate order, diverged around six million years ago, leading to the transition to bipedalism in humans. This shift resulted in two critical changes: first, the freeing of the hands, which facilitated tool creation and subsequently encouraged an increase in brain size and neural complexity; second, the development of language, which significantly improved communication. As such, humans have relied on both biological and cultural evolution to accelerate the spread of innovation throughout their evolutionary history, ultimately becoming the masters of the planet.
Referring to the rapid growth and increasing maturity of AI technology, Prof Wang said that although AI is powerful, people should not overlook its potential risks. He suggested that people should pay more attention to new disciplines in the humanities, deepen their understanding of human nature, including cognition, emotions, and moral values, which can help mitigate the risks and temptations associated with AI. In this way, humans and machines will coexist in harmony and join hands to foster creation.
The event was moderated by Andrew Moody, head of the Department of English of UM’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH). Xu Jie, dean of FAH and director of the Centre for Linguistics, presented UM souvenirs to Prof Wang at the end of the engaging lecture.
To read the news on UM’s official website, please visit the following link:
https://www.um.edu.mo/news-and-press-releases/campus-news/detail/57272/