The Turing Lectures: What is generative AI?

Introduction

In this series, we'll explore the various angles of large-language models and generative AI in the public eye. Across three lectures, we aim to provide a comprehensive, thoughtful and engaging understanding of this rapidly emerging field and its impact on society.

An access fund is available for anyone who would not otherwise be able to attend. Please contact [email protected] to enquire.

About the event

Join us as we will delve into the world of generative AI and explore what it is, how it works, its history and reliability.

Generative AI refers to a type of artificial intelligence that involves creating new and original data or content. Unlike traditional AI models that rely on large datasets and algorithms to classify or predict outcomes, generative AI models are designed to learn the underlying patterns and structure of the data and generate novel outputs that mimic human creativity.

ChatGPT is perhaps the most well-known example, but the field is far larger and more varied than text generation. Other applications of generative AI include image and video synthesis, speech generation, music composition, and virtual reality.

In this lecture, Professor Mirella Lapata will present an overview of this exciting—sometimes controversial—and rapidly evolving field.

Mirella Lapata is professor of natural language processing in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on getting computers to understand, reason with, and generate natural language. She is the first recipient (2009) of the British Computer Society and Information Retrieval Specialist Group (BCS/IRSG) Karen Sparck Jones award and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the ACL, and Academia Europaea.

This series of Turing Lectures is organised in collaboration with The Royal Institution of Great Britain.