President’s Forum
A convivial evening to talk about the Society and topics of current scientific interest
President Millstein
About the Dinner
Come join us for this dinner only meeting of the Society. President Millstein will present an update on the status of the Society and upcoming plans. Then he will revive a long-standing tradition of the Society by introducing a scientific topic of the day and opening that topic for discussion.
The reception begins at 5:45 pm with dinner and discussion to follow at 6:30 pm. Dinner Reservations are required. There will be no lecture in the Powell Auditorium.
*Please note that the previously scheduled speaker, Masaharu Tsubokura, has had to cancel his talk. More information on rescheduling will be posted in the Fall.
Minutes
On May 31, 2024, in the members dining room of the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., President Larry Millstein called the 2,497th meeting of the Society to order at 7:39 p.m. ET. He began by welcoming attendees and thanking sponsors for their support. Scott Mathews then read the minutes of the previous meeting which included the lecture by Brent Seales, titled “Unlost: Recovering the Text of Burnt and Carbonized Scrolls”. The minutes were approved as read, pending a minor correction.
President Millstein then introduced Robin Taylor, the Executive Director and Corresponding Secretary of the Society.
Robin Taylor began by presenting the formal statements of the Society’s mission and its “program services”, as detailed in the Society’s tax filings:
Organization’s Mission: An educational, scientific, and professional society organized in 1871 by Joseph Henry (the first secretary of the Smithsonian) providing science lectures, education, and discussion to its members and the public for the promotion of science, the advancement of learning, and the free exchange of views among its members and attendees on scientific subjects. Lectures and the accompanying discussion are recorded and made available to all, free of charge, on the Society’s video channels.
Program Service 1: In essence, this statement says that the Society organizes and hosts 16-20 science lectures each year, and that these lectures are free of charge and open to all. It goes on to state that PSW lectures are multi-disciplinary and cover all areas of science. This statement describes the pre-lecture dinner and post-lecture “social hour” as an opportunity for interaction with the speakers, as well as other attendees.
Program Service 2: This statement details the Society’s educational outreach efforts. It discusses the fact that all PSW lectures are live-streamed over the internet and posted to the YouTube and Vimeo channels. It emphasizes the fact that these videos, which are viewed hundreds of thousands of times each year, are provided free of charge to viewers throughout the world.
Taylor then presented the median dinner attendance and median lecture attendance over the past ten years, broken down by academic year. The summary was that dinner attendance numbers have remained stable, in spite of the pandemic, and that lecture attendance is slowly rebounding. Detailed numbers of lecture attendance and live-stream viewing was presented for the past two years, showing the numbers for each lecture. While these numbers showed a positive trend with increases in both in-person and online attendance, the numbers remain smaller than the pre-pandemic values.
Financial data was presented, showing a year by year breakdown of revenue, operations expenses, investments, etc. This data showed that while the Society’s income has increased, year after year, the expenses have also increased dramatically. The net result is that the Society appears to be in good financial shape at present, but that additional sponsorship would help guarantee future lectures.
The President’s Forum was followed by a discussion session:
The topic of this discussion was artificial intelligence, or AI. Several members described their personal experiences using AI, including ChatGPT, Watson-X, and Copilot. Several members reported positive results, finding the reports generated by AI to be extremely helpful. Several members recounted difficulties with AI responses, essentially coming down to the “garbage-in, garbage-out” problem.
One member asked if an AI could become a member of the Society, and whether “she” would have to pay dues. The member promptly opened an AI on his cell phone and asked “her” if she would like to join the Society. She declined.
Several members raised concerns about the safety of AI, and the degree of oversight and regulation. While some members emphasized the need for such oversight, other members expressed the idea that “the cat is already out of the bag”.
The general consensus expressed by the members involved in the discussion seemed to be that AI and “large language models” can be an extremely helpful tool, but they still require the judgement of a human being to evaluate their results.
After the discussion period, President Millstein thanked the attendees for their participation, announced speakers of up-coming lectures, and made a number of housekeeping announcements. He adjourned the 2497th meeting of the society at 9:41 pm ET.
Temperature in Washington, DC: 12.8° Celsius
Weather: Mostly cloudy
Audience in the members dining room: 23
Respectfully submitted, Scott Mathews: Recording Secretary