Memory & Imagination in Humans & Machines
DeepMind and SHDP Conference
21-22 September 2017 – Cambridge
Artificial Intelligence and neuroscience in discussion with philosophy, psychology and the arts. This conference is a collaboration of SHDP and DeepMind and is by invitation. For more details please contact us.
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AI and the Future of Humanity Project – Conference 1
“Who’s Afraid of the Super-Machine?” AI in Film and Sci-Fi Literature
15-16 March 2018 – Jesus College, Cambridge
The term “singularity” was introduced by the science fiction writer Vernor Inge in a 1983; it was picked up by Ray Kurzweil in his popular 2005 book The Singularity is Near. At many stages we find fiction in all its forms driving ideas in AI and vice versa. Crucially, we find the relationship between AI developments and our hopes, fears and ambitions, worked out imaginatively through a variety of media. Hence film and literary fictions have been a forum for the drama of ideas that circulate around AI and its future, not least its moral dimension.
What can we learn about ourselves in relation to AI by exploring these narratives? Specialist movie critics will provide commentaries on Sci-fi movie clips and sci-fi writers will read and discuss their works with audiences. There are powerful religious themes in the history of sci-fi machine intelligence, such as achievement of immortality, notions of Omega point futures, transhumanism, the prospect of androids outstripping humans in virtue (cf Terminator 2). Discussions around specific texts will give rise to viewpoints on the impact of AI on beliefs and practice. Taking the creative-media approach to AI and its significance for humanity has the potential to attract a wide ambit of younger participants, including teenagers, via online commentary and reports.
Expected participants at this SHDP Conference include DeepMind, YouTube, the Arts Council, film schools, the British Film Institute, Edinburgh Festival, TED talks, RADA, and creative writing programs.
This is the first conference in SHDP’s AI and the Future of Humanity Project. We are grateful to the Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF) for their funding of this project.
Please contact us for more information about this SHDP event.
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AI and the Future of Humanity Project – Conference 2: The Singularity Summit: Imagination, Memory, Consciousness, Agency, Values
26-27 September 2018 – Jesus College, Cambridge
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AI and the Future of Humanity Conference 3: Will advances in machine intelligence serve to enhance or diminish our moral and spiritual selves? Will these advances serve to create better or worse societies?
May 2019 – Jesus College, Cambridge
