Attending AIUK was a last minute decision but one that I certainly don't regret and I have a sense it will pay dividends somewhere down the line.
I used to attend and present at a lot of conferences and exhibitions before my hearing got really bad and hearing aids no longer compensated for the loss.
So, this is the first big work related event I have attended since getting the Cochlear Implant back at the beginning of 2020.
Of course, back in that year virtually every work gathering on the planet came to halt as we battled with the implications of a global pandemic. As we later came to discover, Downing Street was a well publicised exception to the rules and I was mindful of such things entering the heartland of British politics on Monday to attend the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, just down the road from the Houses of Parliament.
I first visited the Centre when it was less than 10 years old and I was working at the heart of the UK broadcasting industry on projects related to Digital Terrestrial Television with NTL (the former Engineering Division of the Independent Broadcasting Association).
We held a few events inside the committee rooms of the Houses of Parliament back then as we were lobbying UK MPs on supporting Digital Terrestrial Television and demonstrating what it could do via the company's transmitter in Croydon.
Massively fun times working on projects that ended up in all our households over the next few decades.
I remember London being a noisy and dirty place on the whole but the QEII centre was relatively fresh and modern.
I'm pleased to report that approaching its 40th anniversary it is still relatively fresh and modern as it had a massive refurbishment back in 2016 and looks and feels wonderfully contemporary throughout still.
As became clear throughout the course of the event there was a lot of participation and interest from Government and so the location made a lot of sense.
One of my favourite sessions involved 'someone who must not be named' (Chatham House Rules) but it actually made me feel encouraged that people like that are working in Government and clearly have their eye on the AI ball.
Another had a great panel discussing Warfare in the Age of AI.
It prompted a lot of debate, some healthy tension and a lot of questions from the audience.
I liked using the Slido app - https://www.slido.com/ to contribute and vote on questions.
Sadly, my question was next in line before the session reached time and I would have been fascinated by the response from an experienced and eminently qualified panel.
This is what I asked ...
With China increasingly 'trumping' the West regularly in AI developments and rumours of an impending invasion of Taiwan rising again, could we face adversarial AI capabilities in warfare sooner than we may imagine?
My personal opinion is the horrific changes in the US Administration and unpredictability of President Trump are sowing a ripe environment for China to fulfill it's long held ambition to reclaim Taiwan as its own.
How prepared are we to face an adversary already showing itself as potentially more advanced in AI than the Western world?
Is China already hinting enough of an AI advantage/deterrent for the West to stand back?
Interestingly, one of the AI Warfare panel members was playing Devils Advocate and suggesting that all signs point to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) being achieved before the end of 2026.
Should China bite the bullet on its Taiwan ambitions before the end of the Trump presidency - as seems increasingly likely - will the next potential stand off between superpowers happen with AGI in the world?
A lot of very significant questions that could be answered before the end of the decade at the current pace of technological change and geopolitical disruption.
The idea that we are currently in a state of flux regarding technological advance, geopolitics and the future of the human race was explored in greater depth in the session I enjoyed the most - Imagined Futures on day two.
Pitched as a trip into three possible futures, the idea was compelling, thought provoking and well executed.
First up was Andrew Fitzgibbon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Fitzgibbon_(engineer) ) with an imagined future in 2040. He took the approach of imagining returning to the AI UK stage after presenting in 2025 and assessing how many of his predictions came true.
I particularly liked his autonomous vehicle future where the children born this year will be the first generation never needing to learn to drive. Also an intelligent transport future allows us to reclaim large tracts of physical superhighway to nature.
Tania Duarte (https://weandai.org/team/tania-duarte/)brought some vivid colour and fantastic artwork to the stage in an imagined 2075 where our current emerging technofacist dystopia really takes hold and we - the people - have to fight back. The four Rs - Resist, Refuse, Reimagine and Reclaim were powerful ideas and I can certainly imagine need for all of these in some form in our future.
Last up, author Lauren Beukes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Beukes) took us towards the end of this century and an imagined future that very much resonated with the audience.
It was essentially about us waking up to the realities of our world and the need to learn from, and work with, nature.
I loved the idea of the Mycellium Mesh which gives us a literal connection to the nervous system of the planet and the philosophy of Ubuntu (a person is a person because of other people).
As Lauren said herself in a recent LinkedIn post, she imagined "extrapolating that connection to all the other kinds of intelligences already on earth, from slime mould to octopi, viruses to fungi, to empathise, learn and collaborate across species and understand the complex needs of the ecosystem we're part of."
As with a lot of big events where people gather - particularly the climate conferences - you get a sense of hypocrisy and that it's all talk and no real action.
My final thought on AI UK concerns the 'hospitality' and I was very impressed by the approach - which could be summed up as "we are all vegan here".
I found it really refreshing and surprisingly tasty that the event was 'meat free'.
The choices of hot and cold boxes and pots filled with imaginative vegetarian creations was excellent and I didn't see much going to waste.
An emphasis on healthy ingredients and produce that is in season added to the thoughtfulness of the occasion and was very inspiring.
Well done all round the Alan Turing Institute !!!