Why are we funding this?

 

In the face of swinging funding cuts in the US, David Samuel Shiffman defends the value of scientific curiosity in American Scientist. Spotted via Boing Boing.

The Provocateurs: Brave New Bullshit

 

Update: My colleague Elizabeth Polgreen has kindly written a post for the ETAPS Blog describing my show.

Philip Wadler is a man who wears many different hats. Both literally: fedoras, trilbys, even the occasional straw hat, and metaphysically: recently retired Professor of theoretical computer science at the University of Edinburgh; Fellow of the Royal Society; senior researcher at the blockchain infrastructure company IOHK; Lambda Man; often-times favourite lecturer of the first year computer science students; and, occasionally, stand-up comedian. It is the latter role that leads me to ask Phil if he will participate in a Q&A.

[Previous post repeated below.]

Following two sell-out shows at the Fringe last year, I'm on at the Fringe again:

11.25 Monday 4 August, Stand 2 w/Lucy Remnant and Susan Morrison

17.40 Sunday 17 August, Stand 4 w/Smita Kheria and Sarah-Jane Judge

17.40 Tuesday 19 August, Stand 4 w/Cameron Wyatt and Susan Morrison

Shows are under the banner of The Provocateurs (formerly Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas). Tickets go on sale Wednesday 7 May, around noon. The official blurb is brief:

Professor Philip Wadler (The University of Edinburgh) separates the hopes and threats of AI from the chatbot bullshit.

Here is a longer blurb, from my upcoming appearance at Curious, run by the RSE, in September.

Brave New Bullshit

In an AI era, who wins and who loses?

Your future workday might look like this: 

• You write bullet points.
• You ask a chatbot to expand them into a report.
• You send it to your boss ...
• Who asks a chatbot to summarise it to bullet points.

Will AI help you to do your job or take it from you? Is it fair for AI to be trained on copyrighted material? Will any productivity gains benefit everyone or only a select few?

 

Join Professor Philip Wadler’s talk as he looks at the hopes and threats of AI, exploring who wins and who loses.