Dr. William Barry
Zen and the Art of Robot Maintenance :
An Inquiry Into Values
Dr. William Barry is an artificial intelligence (AI) ethicist, leadership consultant, education leader, and futurist. A pioneer in artificial intelligent being interactions and communications, Dr. Barry is the world’s first teacher of a socially advanced AI robot, student and teaching assistant in a university.
Today, Dr. Barry and his AI android teaching assistant Maria Bot help people understand that people and machines are smarter together living in the new era of robots and AI.
Dr. Barry recently served as a visiting professor of philosophy and ethical reasoning at the United States Military Academy at West Point where he taught normative ethical theories, social and political philosophy, cyberethics, the ethics of AI and ethics of autonomous weapons systems.
A recipient of the Army Achievement Award and Medal for Patriotic service for his work teaching about the ethical use of AI in national security at West Point, Dr. Barry has also served as an expert panelist on the ethical use of AI, and the ethical use of semi and autonomous weapons at the University of Oxford, Pembroke College.
Prior to that Dr. Barry was the founding director of the Virtual Reality Learning Lab at Notre Dame de Namur University in California, a virtual human and STEAM immersive learning lab that explores the ethical and knowledge dimensions of using mixed reality for learning and teaching.
An innovative pioneer in living educational theory, Dr. Barry created an original method of learning called artificial constructivism, defined by a person learning from an AI entity and then validating the potential knowledge constructed through a human who is competent in the subject area.
Dr. Barry earned his Ph.D. from Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in England where he created a process for understanding quality in human communication and human-robot connection called Transformational Quality Theory (T.Q. Theory). The T.Q. Theory communication framework helps human beings and AI connect on biological, intellectual, emotional, and existential issues when in learning to situations together. Dr. Barry’s innovative approach to Living Education Theory (LET) focuses on pedagogy and AI research found on honoring the dignity and sacredness of all life.
A certified emotional intelligence coach and master-level neuro linguistic programming practitioner, Dr. Barry also serves as the Founder and Director of the Philosophy for Children and Community Project within the organization Living Leadership, LLC, an international consulting group of Ph.D. academics, thought leaders, and executive and sports performance coaches.
Dr. Barry is a pioneer in virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality technology in education applications.