Do Fuzzy Sets Matter? An Interdisciplinary Point of View

Christian Wagner, University of Nottingham, UK
Abstract: Since their inception over fifty years ago, fuzzy sets and systems have been successfully leveraged in a variety of applications, from control, to decision support in medical assessment. In recent years, while substantial advances are still made on a continuous basis, the level of activity and excitement around fuzzy sets and many associated technologies seems to have dimmed. Many new developments on �AI�, and indeed, wider society�s attention are focused on big advances in other areas, specifically machine learning. An obvious question may be � do fuzzy sets (still) matter? In this talk, I will try and address this question by focusing on a body of work which centres on the systematic capture and of uncertainty � and its modelling with fuzzy sets. I will discuss a number of applications of such data-driven fuzzy sets, from cyber security to time series prediction. Broadening out, I will take an interdisciplinary point of view to explore the potential of fuzzy sets in new areas, such as quantitative social science and indeed, in supporting a new generation of privacy-preserving AI.