Royal Institution Christmas Lectures: Artificial Intelligence

Watched by millions on the BBC, the annual Christmas Lectures are a staple in the UK’s festive season. For 2023 Professor Mike Wooldridge will tackle the most important and rapidly evolving field of science today - Artificial Intelligence - in his talk The truth about AI.

The world’s longest-running science lecture series comes to Liverpool, when filming of the 2023 Christmas Lectures will be live-streamed from the Royal Institution’s iconic theatre to World Museum (one of only 16 livestream partners).

AI has increasingly grabbed the headlines in recent years – generating excitement and concern in equal measure – but what should we believe? In these lectures Mike will reveal how AI works and how it will affect our lives – and will tackle head-on our hopes and fears for this most fascinating of fields.

Throughout the three Lectures, Mike will explore the big questions facing AI research and unravel the myths about how this ground-breaking technology really works.

How can a machine be taught to play a game or translate from one language to another? He will show how computer programmes inspired by the human brain can be taught and even teach themselves. And he will tell the surprising story of how tools like the latest chatbots work and illustrate the mind-boggling scale of modern AI systems – that can be used in everything from gaming to movie-making to designing drugs.