Join Professor Mike Wooldridge for this year’s Royal Institution (RI) Christmas Lectures, as he tackles arguably the most important and rapidly-evolving field of science in the world today – artificial intelligence.
Beginning on Tuesday 26 December, the first of three new Open University / BBC co-produced programmes The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures – The Truth About AI airs on BBC Four at 8pm and will be available on iPlayer.
Founded in 1825 by Michael Faraday, The Christmas Lectures are the world’s longest-running science television series, and always promise to inspire and amaze each year through explosive demonstrations and interactive experiments with the live theatre audience.
This year, Professor Mike Wooldridge asks: What is the Truth about Artificial Intelligence? As he compares how AI works and learns, with how the human brain functions. This year’s audience will be entirely made up of school children, who will actively engage in the demonstrations.
AI exploded into the public consciousness in 2022 with the release of ChatGPT – already boasting around 100 million monthly users.
Exploring the roots of AI, Professor Wooldridge reveals how scientist Alan Turing devised the ‘Imitation Game’ – a test of whether a machine answering a series of questions could pass as a human. The audience in the Lecture theatre will play a real-life version of the game to find out if AI can pass this test today.
In the second episode, we consider the huge role AI already plays in our daily lives – sometimes without us even realising what it is doing.
The series draws to a close in episode three as Professor Wooldridge is joined by leading experts to grapple with the future of AI. What promises and dangers lie ahead, as AI continues to evolve?
The lectures were supported by OU academic Dr Mike Richards, who provided expert knowledge during the development of the series.
Dr Richards said:
“It’s more than 70 years since Alan Turing asked the question ‘whether it possible for machinery to show intelligent behaviour?’ but it is only in the few years or so that public interest in artificial intelligence (AI) has exploded. From computer programmes that can produce endless amounts of fluent text, music and artwork; to autonomous vehicles and robots; and from scientific research to video games – machines are behaving in much more intelligent ways.
“The rise of artificial intelligence is underpinned by huge advances in a range of technologies: the ability of machines to learn in manners inspired by human learning; the enormous volumes of data available to us; and the development of incredibly fast and powerful microprocessors.
“In these three lectures, Professor Wooldridge explains the technologies behind AI and not just how they could be used – but are being used right now by each of us in our daily lives, perhaps without even realising it. But AI is more than just technology, Professor Wooldridge also asks crucial questions about how we as individuals and as a society use and control to create a better world for everyone.”
Dr Caroline Ogilvie, Head of Broadcast and Partnerships at the OU, said:
“This is the first time we have co-produced the Royal Institution lectures and we are delighted to be part of such a significant and enduring lecture series. As AI is likely to have an impact on our lives, these lectures provide an accessible insight into how it works and give us an opportunity to better understand its future applications.”
More information
This programme was commissioned by Broadcast and Partnerships and is supported by the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics with particular relevance to R38 | BSc (Hons) Data Science | Open University, Q62 | BSc (Hons) Computing & IT (Software) | Open University and TM358 | Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (open.ac.uk)
Commissioned by Dr Caroline Ogilvie, Head of Broadcast and Partnerships
- Academic Consultant: Dr Mike Richards
- Media Fellow: Dr Andrew Potter
- Broadcast Project Manager: Poppy Ross
- Senior Broadcast Platforms and Partnerships Manager: Patrick Kearney
Supporting Online content:
Visit our Broadcast and Partnerships site, OU Connect, where you can find extensive resources and information on topics related to this series. We invite you to watch an exclusive interview with Professor Wooldridge and other experts here. This will be live from the point of broadcast.
(NB: this site may not be live or complete prior to broadcast)
