IAS Distinguished Lecture - A Match Made in Silicon: The Co-Evolution of Systems and AI

Abstract

In a world where rapid innovation fuels our greatest ambitions, systems and AI have found themselves in a dynamic and transformative partnership. The systems community has worked tirelessly in the background, building the foundation that enabled AI’s meteoric rise. But now, AI’s exponential progress threatens to outpace the very systems supporting it. At this critical juncture, the speaker and his research team propose a bold “marriage” — one that allows systems and AI to co-evolve in ways that push each beyond its current boundaries. In this keynote, the speaker will examine the role of systems in accelerating AI advancements, the strains AI’s unprecedented growth places on current infrastructures, and the emerging ways AI can reciprocate by transforming the systems landscape. Through systems thinking and core principles, the speaker will outline the grand challenges that arise from this union, envisioning a future where systems and AI reshape each other, charting a path forward that calls on the AI community to foster a future of symbiotic growth.


About the Speaker

Dr. ZHOU Lidong is a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, Chief Scientist of the Microsoft Asia Pacific R&D Group, and Managing Director of Microsoft Research Asia. 

With a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University, Dr. Zhou’s career at Microsoft began in 2002. His journey has spanned across Microsoft’s Research labs, including the Silicon Valley lab as a researcher, the Redmond lab as a principal researcher and Research Manager of the Systems Research Group, and the Asia lab where he currently serves as the Managing Director since 2021.

Dr. Zhou’s expertise lies in the field of computer systems research, particularly in developing scalable, reliable, and trustworthy distributed systems, with best papers at the ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP), the USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI), and the USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC). He has played a pivotal role in the design and development of large-scale distributed systems, which are integral to various Microsoft products and services, from search engines and big data infrastructure to cloud systems and AI infrastructure.

Dr. Zhou is both an ACM Fellow and an IEEE Fellow. He has served on the editorial boards of ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, ACM Transactions on Storage, and IEEE Transactions on Computers. In 2023, he chaired the ACM Software System Award Committee(opens in new tab) and currently chairs the steering committee of SOSP. He was the general Co-Chair of SOSP 2017 and served as the PC Co-Chair of OSDI 2025.


For Attendees' Attention

Seating is on a first come, first served basis.