About This Event

Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton, the ‘godfather of artificial intelligence’ believes there is a 10-20% chance that AI will cause human extinction within 30 years. Most of the CEOs of AI companies have given comparable figures. In a 2023 survey of 2778 AI researchers more than half thought the figure was greater than 5% - a similar survey today would give a higher figure. Some whistle blowers and AI insiders believe that the risk is greater than 50% and that we are probably heading for the apocalypse. Others inside and outside the industry dismiss these claims as woefully and dangerously alarmist. Nobody though would dream of boarding a plane which had a 1% risk of crashing, or even a 0.1% risk that nobody would survive the journey. Yet the race to establish super-intelligent AI proceeds at breakneck speed with no effective control. Disagreements are monumental, including amongst experts and AI insiders. They are not only about the seriousness of the risk and about what should be done about it, but about the nature of the problem. There is no agreement even about the nature of artificial intelligence. Is it truly intelligent, is it conscious, is it sentient, does it have agency, can it act independently, could it have feelings, might it have rights, can it be securely aligned with human values, could it be malevolent, should we be nice to it, can we ever hope to control it, how will we relate to something when it becomes a great deal more intelligent than we are? Philosophical questions may never have been so relevant to a ,akpr public debate, and may never have had such practical implications. For example if AI developers believe that AI is conscious or could become conscious this will affect their belief in how AI is developed and controlled This meeting was planned two months ago. A month later AI risk hit the headlines and has never left them. If you join us at the Britannia Inn on October 7th you may not find many answers. You should though have an interesting ev

Staying overnight?

Hotels within walking distance of The Britannia Inn.

Frequently asked questions