AI responsibility remains in our hands, warns Ri Christmas Lecturer
18 Dec 2023
Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool for better decision making but the ‘ethical buck’ stops with us, warns leading AI expert and Royal Institution Christmas lecturer, Professor Mike Wooldridge.
The Oxford university Professor of Computer Science and Director of AI at the Alan Turing Institute discusses at length the implications of the technology in the new edition of Laboratory News.
In an exclusive interview, Wooldridge considers a range of issues including AI’s impact on workplace disruption, global governance, quantum computing, data capture, health and social care, and the differing generational attitudes to it.
“The key thing I’d like to do through the Christmas Lectures is demystify AI,” says Wooldridge.
“You’re not dealing with a mind, or consciousness, but rather with a tool… and tools are what we’ve used since the Stone Age.”
Other seasonal highlights of the issue include a full report of this year’s Lab Awards, staged at the recent Lab Innovations show, a focus on the renewed interest in molecular diagnostics, and a profile of the Scottish university spin-out pioneering lab-grown scents.
There’s also a comprehensive look at lab premises, including the trend towards city spaces in response to growing demand for developments, as well as the importance of lab design in developing the UK as a science superpower.
Meanwhile, The Knowledge section hones in on security in the laboratory, with articles on cyber protection, human error and biosecure cleaning.
There’s also regular columns including Laboratology, Lab Babble and a Christmas-focused Game Theory special.
Laboratory News is available in print but watch out too for the digital edition on this website soon.
Pic: Paul Wilkinson Photography
