Where will software go in the next few years? How will it be written and consumed? How is software enabling new paradigms of computation? These are some of the questions we will explore as we discuss how we are pushing the frontiers of software.

We have witnessed in recent years the power of AI applied to human language. Project Debater is the most recent example of how far AI has come to learn and reason in human language. Powerful AI models are now emerging that enable AI to create in new domains like software engineering. Just as words are the language of humans, code is the language of machines, and we are building AI that helps us master code. Imagine a future where computers program computers; and by learning, reasoning, and generating new code, AI can streamline and automate time-consuming and tedious manual IT processes, freeing up software engineers’ time to unleash their creativity. We will discuss the underlying techniques enabling this future. We will see the transformative impact of AI for code, from modernizing legacy applications to intelligently managing them. Furthermore, we will see how we can ensure trust, security, and compliance in the use of AI models.

Finally, a new paradigm of computation combining physics and information—quantum computing—is emerging capable of solving problems intractable to conventional computers. The utility of a quantum computer is determined by its ability to run computationally hard quantum circuits leading to advantages in the solution of science and business problems. Software development is key to realizing this utility and extracting the benefits of quantum computing. We will discuss how software engineering is leading to a higher capacity of running circuits by speeding up the execution rate, and how it allows a wider variety of circuits to be run more efficiently to enable more applications.

Dr. Darío Gil is Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research.

As a technology and business leader, Dr. Gil is responsible for IBM Research, one of the world’s largest and most influential corporate research labs, with over 3,000 researchers. He is the 12th Director in its 76-year history. Dr. Gil leads the technology roadmap and the technical community of IBM, directing innovation strategies in areas including hybrid cloud, AI, quantum computing, and exploratory science. He is also responsible for IBM’s intellectual property strategy and business.

Dr. Gil is a globally recognized leader of the quantum computing industry. Under his leadership, IBM was the first company in the world to build programmable quantum computers and make them universally available through the cloud.

An advocate of collaborative research models, Dr. Gil co-chairs the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, which advances fundamental AI research to the broad benefit of industry and society. He also co-chairs the COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium, which provides access to the world’s most powerful high-performance computing resources in support of COVID-19 research.

Dr. Gil is a member of the National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation (NSF), a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences, and a trustee of the New York Hall of Science.

Dr. Gil received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.