In recent years, and certainly since the launch of ChatGPT, there has been massive public and professional interest in Artificial Intelligence. But people are confused about what AI is, what it can and cannot do, what is yet to come, and whether AI is good or bad for humanity and civilisation – whether it will provide solutions to mankind’s major challenges or become our gravest existential threat. There is also confusion about how we should regulate AI and where we should draw moral boundaries on its use.

In How To Think About AI, Prof Richard Susskind draws on his experience of working on AI since the early 1980s. For Prof Susskind, balancing the benefits and threats of artificial intelligence is the defining challenge of our age. He positions ChatGPT and generative AI as no more than the latest chapter in the ongoing story of AI and claims we are still at the foothills of developments. He argues that to think responsibly about the impact of AI requires us to look well beyond todays technologies, suggesting that not-yet-invented technologies will have far greater impact on us in the 2030s than the tools we have today. This leads him to discuss the possibility of conscious machines, magnificent new AI-enabled virtual worlds, and the impact of AI on the evolution of biological humans.

In this book talk, Prof Susskind will discuss the main themes of the book with Prof Ian Goldin (Director of the Oxford Martin School Programmes on the Future of Work, Technological and Economic Change, and Future of Development).

This event will be followed by a book sale/signing and drinks reception, all welcome.