Last week, I attended a talk by Neil Lawrence, professor of machine learning at Sheffield University, who is now on secondment at Amazon. It was a tour de force across the terrain of artificial intelligence: how algorithms work, how they learn and how they are shaping our lives. There were also stimulating sections on data protection, hacking and legal reform.
These kinds of talks, dazzling in their intellectual sophistication and range, are now commonplace across the UK’s big cities. They are also often free and open to all. I have listened to the great philosopher PMS Hacker on the nature of language, Professor Mark Thomas on cultural evolution, and a powerful debate on memory (this time for a small fee) at the Royal Institution, the building in Mayfair where Michael Faraday conducted much of his pioneering research.
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