Brighton Data Forum: Special event on AI

Welcome to the Brighton Data Forum’s special event on AI!

There is no shortage of commentary on the impact that artificial intelligence can have (and already has had) on our society. Still, we want to add some smart, local voices and novel perspectives to the conversation. So we have put together this event, where diverse viewpoints can gather to discuss the prospective futures that this AI revolution heralds.

We will first hear from Jon Mead, CEO of Rittman Mead, whose talk “Have We Gone Too Far?” sets the stage and raises some of the thorny questions to discuss.

Jon writes:

“This presentation looks at the societal, moral and ethical perspectives of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) and asks the question ‘have we gone too far?’

I am a lover of technology, however when I observe the development in these fields there seems to be a unfettered, sometimes childish, and often highly profit-driven desire to push them further and further. There seem far fewer people trying to work out their impact and the fundamental philosophical questions we should be asking.

When I look around the large companies and governments, I see very little understanding or incentive to make decisions for the good of society. It feels like we are at a crossroads for humanity and the grown ups have left the room.”

Following that opening, an expert panel will join Jon on stage:

• Adebisi Adewusi, a science and technology policy consultant at Technopolis Group with a particular focus on emerging digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality, and virtual reality.
• AI artist Shardcore, who long has played in the lands of algo-culture, seeing farther than most, alternating between summoning and exorcising the ghosts in the machine. A selection of his works can be enjoyed from his website and his views and warnings on the societal impact can be glimpsed in his presentation to the Brighton Data Forum in July 2021.
• Sebastian Weidt, CEO of Universal Quantum, where he and his team are on a mission to transforming the world by embracing entanglement and scaling up quantum computing to transformative levels where it can tackle the world’s hardest challenges.
• Colin Hayhurst, CEO of mojeek.com, the search engine that won’t track you. Colin was the co-founder of DataJavelin, a machine learning consultancy spun up at the University of Sussex’s DISCUS initiative. For years, Colin organised the Sussex data science meetup, where he recently appeared to talk about how the race for AI supremacy poses threats to the web as we know it.
• Jeremy Horne, founder of Datacove, has agreed to act as the panel moderator, keeping the conversation on track while ensuring everyone gets their chance to speak.

The panel will state their own position on the topic/questions and then field probing questions from you, the audience. Please do join us and participate in tackling this important and mind-blowing topic. It promises to be an enlightening and entertaining evening.

Note that unlike most of our events, this event will be in-person only. Refreshments to be served.

This event is supported by Silicon Brighton, and sponsored by Rittman Mead Consulting, and mpb.com.