Thinking at Twilight with Professor Toby Walsh

We welcomed back Professor Toby Walsh (St John's, Mathematics & Theoretical Physics) as our guest speaker on "Machines Behaving Badly" on 18 May at the UUSC. Toby Walsh, AI expert, discussed the ethical issues we face in a future dominated by artificial intelligence, and has written a new book 'Can we build moral machines?'. Artificial intelligence is an essential part of our lives – for better or worse. It can be used to influence what we buy, who gets shortlisted for a job and even how we vote. Without AI, medical technology wouldn’t have come so far, we’d still be getting lost on backroads in our GPS-free cars, and smartphones wouldn’t be so, well, smart. But as we continue to build more intelligent and autonomous machines, what impact will this have on humanity and the planet? Machines Behaving Badly was a thought-provoking talk looking at the increasing human reliance on robotics and the decisions that need to be made now to ensure the future of AI is as a force for good, not evil.