Will Robots Rule the World?

From Metropolis to The Terminator, Hollywood often foresees our relationship with intelligent machines going badly wrong. What is the reality? Can current developments in AI and robotics show us the real future for man and machine?

In science fiction, robots and artificial intelligence seem to go hand in hand with human complacency and a failure to foresee the menacing threat of new technologies. The result? A disaster waiting to happen, whether it’s Yul Brynner’s gunslinger running amok in Michael Crichton’s Westworld, or the ‘internet of things’ taking over the world in the Daniel H Wilson novel Robopocalypse.

But what does the future really hold for the relationship between man and machine? What can we expect? Societies run by altruistic automatons? Humanity threatened by mechanised malevolence? Mankind destroyed by a robot revolution?

In this follow-up to June’s Future Worlds event we’ll be asking if science fiction gives us any real clues about the development of robotics and AI technology. Is it a huge opportunity, or a massive threat? What do you think?

Speakers:

Noel Sharkey, Professor of AI and Robotics, Professor of Public Engagement, Sheffield University
Louis Savy, Director and founder, SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival

Facilitator:

L J Rich, presenter/producer, BBC Click

Event organised by Herb Enmarch-Williams, Inventurecatalyst