Events Ngalang Koort Conversations: A.C. Grayling

Join the Ngalang Koort Conversations - a new international lecture series where acclaimed international speakers will explore topics of global importance.

Boffins is delighted to be there as lecture series bookseller.

The renowned philosopher A. C. Grayling is the inaugural speaker of the series and will explore the question "Will AI be humankind’s ‘last invention’?" in a conversation with Robyn Owens, a mathematician and pioneering computational vision scientist, on 15 November 2023.   The conversation will be followed by a Q&A session. 

Will AI be humankind’s ‘last invention’?

Generative AI, ChatGPT, “The Singularity” are hotly debated technology concepts. Will generative artificial intelligence tools change creative work for the better and create a whole new set of opportunities for companies and professionals? Or will this technology take on a life of its own, and transform our reality in radical and unpredictable ways that are no longer controlled by humans?

In the face of an uncertain future, A.C. Grayling and Robyn Owens will discuss the benefits and threats of generative AI on creative industries and beyond. Are we now at the point of an “intelligence explosion”, with self-generating machine intelligence increasing exponentially? Will this be a tool to help us address the existential challenges humankind faces? Or will it pose an “extinction-level” risk?

The Ngalang Koort Conversations international lecture series has been created by the Foundation for the WA Museum and is supported by Founding Partner, Wesfarmers. 


About Professor A.C. Grayling CBE MA DPhil (Oxon) FRSA FRSL 
Professor A. C. Grayling CBE MA DPhil (Oxon) FRSA FRSL is the Principal of Northeastern University London, and its Professor of Philosophy. He is also a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford.  
 
He is the author of over thirty books of philosophy, biography, history of ideas, and essays. He was for a number of years a columnist for The Guardian, The Times, and Prospect Magazine. He has contributed to many leading newspapers in the UK, US and Australia, and to BBC Radios 4, 3 and the World Service, for which he did the annual 'Exchanges at the Frontier' series; and he has often appeared on television.  
 
He has twice been a judge on the Booker Prize, in 2014 serving as the Chair of the judging panel. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Vice President of Humanists UK, a Patron of the Defence Humanists, an Honorary Associate of the Secular Society, and a Patron of Dignity in Dying. 

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