Manchester’s historic home of big ideas and creative thinking, Manchester Lit & Phil, hosts a series of eye-opening sessions exploring the impact and implications of AI in the coming weeks.

From responsible robotics to AI’s role in the fight against cancer, here’s what’s coming up.

Human Interactions and the Implications for Ethical and Responsible RAI (Robotics and AI) | Thu 2 May

With advanced technologies holding a growing influence over our daily lives, this talk explores the importance of Responsible Robotics and AI (RAI), and how we define what this responsibility looks like.

Dr Emily C Collins, an interdisciplinary Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Research Scientist and a British Psychological Society Chartered Psychologist, examines the short and long-term consequences of RAI by placing human interactions at its centre.

Who is using the technology? Who are their employers? Who deploys the technology? Dr Emily C Collins questions how we establish these necessary ethical parameters with so many varying influences at play.

Cross Street Chapel, Cross Street, Manchester M2 1NL
Shedding new light on disease | Wed 3 Jul

Peter Gardner, Professor of Analytical and Biomedical Spectroscopy in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Photon Science Institute at the University of Manchester asks whether spectroscopy and AI help in the fight against cancer.

With pathology services under greater strain than ever, Professor Peter Gardner delves into new technologies that have the potential to improve cancer care, including a combination of new spectroscopy microscopes and AI.

Spectroscopy microscopes create images by analysing vibrations in molecules that make up the tissue. AI can then be used to probe these chemical maps and look for features that cannot be seen under a conventional microscope, helping pathologists make the correct diagnosis.

International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester M1 5BY
Knowledge, Teaching and Artificial Intelligence | Wed 10 Jul

Advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence services such as ChatGPT have caused both excitement and alarm, particularly within the education sector.

With the reality that these automated services can select words which are as meaningful to humans as the ones humans might select themselves, educational institutes must reevaluate how knowledge is assessed.

Dr Mark William Johnson, a transdisciplinary researcher whose work is grounded in the science of cybernetics, calls on the philosophy of language and the mechanics of AI to investigate the critical differences between human word selection and artificial word selection.

Cross Street Chapel, Cross Street, Manchester M2 1NL
Thu 2 May - Wed 10 Jul
Words:
Bradley Lengden
Published on:
Mon 29 Apr 2024