Brian Cox and Jim al-Khalili to host final You and AI events in Manchester and London

The Royal Society has added two final dates to You and AI, its flagship series of public events on the potential and pitfalls of artificial intelligence. 

The season will culminate with an event hosted by Professor Jim al-Khalili at the Manchester Science Festival on Sunday 28 October and Professor Brian Cox at the Barbican on Tuesday 11 December. These last two events are an hour and a half long opportunity for anyone to pose questions to the world’s leading experts on AI. 

You and AI at Manchester Science Festival

Sunday 28 October 2018, 5.30pm – 7pm
Royal Exchange Theatre, St Ann's Square, Manchester, M2 7DH
Buy tickets

Physicist, author and broadcaster Jim Al Khalili will be hosting this debate at the Manchester Science Festival, which explores whether AI can increase our capacity to understand the mysteries of the universe and tackle some of our most pressing real-world challenges. Get your thinking caps on, as you’ll be invited to put your questions to a very special line-up of people in the know and discover just how far the boundaries of AI are being pushed.

The panel will include:

• Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton and Executive Director of the Web Science Institute
• Professor Neil Lawrence, Chair in Neuro and Computer Science University of Sheffield and machine learning researcher at Amazon
• Dr Ewa Luger, Chancellor's Fellow in Digital Arts and Humanities studying AI Ethics

You and AI at the Barbican Centre with Brian Cox

Tuesday 11 December 2018, 7.30pm – 9pm
Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS
Buy tickets (On general sale at 10am Thursday 25 October)

The seventh and final event in You and AI will culminate in December at the 2000-seat Barbican Hall. Join Professor Brian Cox, the Royal Society Professor of Public Engagement, as he brings together experts on AI and machine learning for a frank discussion on the potential and pitfalls of the technology. 

The panel will include:

• Professor Peter Donnelly, Director, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, and Professor of Statistical Science, University of Oxford
• Dr Vivienne Ming, Theoretical neuroscientist, technologist, entrepreneur and co-founder of Socos
• Professor Suchi Saria, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University

This is the first collaboration between the Royal Society and the Barbican ahead of the Barbican’s Life Rewired season next year, which explores what it means to be human when technology is changing everything.

Previous events

You and AI follows the Royal Society’s in-depth assessment of public views of machine learning which found that just one in ten members of the UK public recognised the term machine learning, even though the technology – a form of artificial intelligence – is already part of our everyday lives.

The report highlighted a range of public opinions on machine learning, depending on how, where, and why the technology was being used. Given the potential of this technology to both transform and disrupt our lives, the Royal Society set up You and AI to help people understand what machine learning and AI are, how the technology works and the ways it may affect our lives. 

The series launched on 30 April with a talk from British neuroscientist, artificial intelligence researcher and CEO of DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, who discussed the history, capabilities and frontiers of AI. Other speakers have included Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, AI ethics researcher Kate Crawford and technological privacy pioneer Cynthia Dwork.