Hebden Bridge Web

A Boffin's View of Artificial Intelligence

Speaker: Professor Thomas Leo McCluskey
Sat 17 February, 7.30pm
Hebden Bridge Town Hall

If we didn't worry about AI before, we do now. Talk about it is all over the TV, radio and social media. Every day, we worry about Alexa listening to our conversations or ChatGPT giving us biased information, but what will happen in the future?

How can we forget that televised conversation between our prime minister and Elon Musk in which we learned that no one would have to work in the future, because machines and robots will do it all for us? Suddenly an occasional duvet day becomes a daily expectation. Heaven or Hell? Will this be A Brave New World? You must decide.

Clearly, we need a wise, knowledgeable voice to help us come to terms with the vision of the future promoted by some pundits in the media.

Professor Thomas Leo McCluskey will come to our rescue. He is a globally respected expert in AI. The aim of his talk is to give our Lit&Sci audience an insight and basic understanding of the field of AI, and the recent developments, so that we can interpret news of, and developments in, AI in a more balanced way.

His credentials are admirably fitting for the job. He has 2 Maths degrees and a PhD in AI (majoring in Machine Learning), completed in 1988. He has been a University Professor in Computer Science for 30 years, and has published about 200 articles, mainly in AI. He has played a leading role in winning and managing millions of pounds worth of research projects in AI areas. These projects have involved investigating the applications of AI techniques in such areas as Rail Rolling Stock Maintenance, Urban Traffic Control, Drilling Operations, and Aircraft Traffic Separation Standards.