Draft:Amitava Das (researcher)

Amitava Das is a computer scientist and a professor at the Artificial Intelligence Institute of the University of South Carolina. He has worked in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and known for advancing research and understanding in areas such as sentiment analysis, hate speech detection, and the societal impact of large language models.

Biography
He was born and raised in Berhampore, West Bengal, India. After attending Berhampore JN Academy and Saidabad Manidra Chandra Vidyapith, Das pursued a brief period of studying chemistry at Berhampore Krishnanath College before deciding to pursue a career in engineering.

Completing his doctoral studies in the Computer Science department of Jadavpur University in late 2012, Das focused on understanding human sentiment and emotions during this period.

During his doctoral studies, he collaborated with the Tokyo Institute of Technology on the Indo-Japan project Sentiment Analysis where AI meets Psychology and experienced the 2011 tsunami and earthquake in Tokyo, evacuating with the assistance of the Indian Embassy.

Research
His research in the realm of AI includes the exploration of emerging capabilities and potential risks of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPT, Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, and Midjourney.

His insights on this topic have been featured in interviews with Analytics India magazine and the Washington Post.

Das work on multimodal toxicity prevention for Gen AI models addresses the pressing issue of potential misuse of AI systems, his research emphasizes the need for robust fact-checking and hate speech detection in the era of large Generative AI models. The open letter for a moratorium on AI systems training, which Das co-signed, underscores the critical importance of preventing the spread of misinformation through AI.