BBC Machine Learning Fireside Chats Presents: Too Dangerous To Ship.

This time we are teaming up with Mozfest to bring you a special BBC Machine Learning Fireside Chat from the RSA.

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With machine learning becoming more prevalent and more effective, are our creations becoming too powerful for our own good?

OpenAI earlier this year decided to not fully release its text generation algorithm GPT-2 due to "safety and security concerns". The rise of deepfakes makes it feel that we can no longer trust videos that we see. And Boston Dynamics is regularly releasing more and more remarkable videos of robots that can go on doing their tasks despite being bullied by humans.

While many of these examples seem quite far from our day to day experiences, machine learning algorithms are slowly taking over a bigger and bigger part of our lives. From recommended products on an ecommerce website to recommended jobs on a social network, these algorithms shape what opportunities we see in the world. So how do we know whether algorithms are being allowed to make too many important decisions? How do we decide that something should be subject to human intervention? Is there such a thing as a dangerous algorithm? And who gets to draw that line?

-- Gabriel

Our panelists for this chat are:

Rosie Campbell is a Program Lead at the Partnership on AI, researching beneficial AI strategy. She was previously the Assistant Director of the Center for Human-Compatible AI at UC Berkeley and a Research Engineer at BBC R&D. Her academic background spans Computer Science, Physics, Philosophy, and Machine Learning, and her interest in the social implications of emerging technology led her to co-found Manchester Futurists.

Eric Drass (aka shardcore) is an artist and curator who makes work in a range of media, from painting, to digital installation, to generative experiments which live on the net. Some of his favourite themes are identity, consciousness, the philosophical ramifications of artificial intelligence, big data and the relationship between humans and machines. Eric holds a degree in Philosophy and Psychology (Oxford) and an unfinished PhD in Cognitive Psycholinguistics (also Oxford).

Catherine Brien started out her career in management consulting and gravitated towards the challenges of needing a more data led approach to understand customer motivations and behaviour. In 2016 she joined the CoOp Group as Data Science Director. In September 2018 she joined the Guardian in her new role of Chief Data Officer where she is now leading the drive towards the Guardian becoming more data driven across all areas of operations.

We will start with some food and drinks, then a hosted discussion followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Tickets

Additional Information

Registration begins from 18:30 for a prompt 19:00 start – food and drinks will be provided from 18:30pm.

Join the conversation and follow us on Twitter: @BBC_MLFireside

This event is for ages 18+ only. Please note that by attending this event you are agreeing to be filmed and/or photographed the material of which may be used on BBC websites and social media.