The Truth about AI – 2023 Royal Institute Christmas Lectures with Mike Wooldridge

Every year, the Royal Institute hosts a series of three lectures over the Christmas period. Initiated by Michael Faraday, the idea behind these talks is to present science to children in an exciting way. Past series have covered topics such as forensic science, planet earth, and the hidden power of maths. This year, it was the turn of AI, with the lectures given by Professor Mike Wooldridge.

With the help of other experts in the field, Mike used hands-on demonstrations, involving members of the audience, to help explain different concepts core to machine learning and artificial intelligence. In the first lecture, for example, a simple classification neural network was represented by liquid filling containers to activate a “neuron”. In the second lecture, there was even an appearance from a dog to help explain reinforcement learning.

Watch the lectures

If you are based in the UK, you can watch the three episodes on the BBC iPlayer
The Truth about AI: 1. How to Build an Intelligent Machine
The Truth about AI: 2. My AI Life
The Truth about AI: 3. The Future of AI: Dream or a Nightmare?

If you outside of the UK, you can watch the series on YouTube.

You can find out more about the Christmas Lectures here.

Lucy Smith is Senior Managing Editor for AIhub.

Lucy Smith is Senior Managing Editor for AIhub.