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Milner Prize Lecture: Smoke or fire? How to spot and debunk misleading content

17 November 2025 18:30 - 19:30 The Royal Society Free Watch online
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Carlton House Terrace

Join us for the Royal Society Milner Award Prize Lecture 2025 delivered by Professor Iryna Gurevych.

The Milner Award and Lecture 2025 is awarded to Professor Iryna Gurevych for her major contributions to natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence that combine deep understanding of human language and cognitive faculty with the latest paradigms in machine learning.

Abstract: Misleading content is hard to spot — and equally dangerous to humans who consume it and to generative AI that might amplify it. Examples of such misleading content include false claims on social media supported by the misuse of credible scientific publications, images or videos taken out of their original context and paired with false narratives, and misleading charts designed to persuade audiences to accept inaccurate statements. How can we identify and debunk misleading claims? This talk will educate the audience on the tactics used to create deceptive content and demonstrate how the latest advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence can be applied to protect both people and machines from misinformation.

Iryna Gurevych is a leading voice in AI and natural language processing, recognized as a Fellow of both the ACL and ELLIS, an ERC Advanced Grant awardee, a member of several global science academies, and winner of the prestigious Milner Award of the Royal Society. She is Professor of Computer Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, and also serves as an adjunct professor at MBZUAI in the UAE and INSAIT in Bulgaria. As the first ever LOEWE Chair of Excellence and Distinguished Professor at the National Center for Cybersecurity ATHENE, she brings together a deep understanding of human language and the latest breakthroughs in machine learning. Her groundbreaking work has shaped emerging fields such as large language models, human-AI collaboration, argument mining and misinformation detection, revolutionizing the way how both people and machines navigate an increasingly complex information landscape.

Attending the event

  • The event is free to join, please register via Eventbrite for a ticket
  • Live subtitles will be available in-person and virtually

Attending in person

  • This lecture can be attended in person at the Royal Society with a ticket from Eventbrite
  • Doors will open to the public at 6pm GMT

Find travel and accessibility information on our website.

Attending online

  • The lecture will also be livestreamed here and on the Royal Society YouTube channel
  • You can take part in the live Q&A via Slido
  • This event will be recorded (including the live Q&A) and the recording will be available on YouTube soon after the event

For all enquiries, please contact awards@royalsociety.org.