Below are events and talks I did for the public rather than an academic audience.
Some of these events were recorded as podcasts or videos. I have linked to those recordings in square brackets, or you can head over to the “Podcasts & Videos” section here on my website to watch / listen to them directly.
AI and CogSci at the VHS Rosenheim
Via Wikimedia Commons.
In November 2020 my colleagues and I took over a 3-talk slot at the VHS Rosenheim, an adult education centre (Volkshochschule) in the town of Rosenheim, to talk about artificial intelligence and cognitive science. In the 34. trimester of their Studium Generale, we addressed a number of topics. First, my colleague Rudolf Seising and I introduced AI and CogSci, giving an overview that included some computing history and discussion of the concept “intelligence” as well as philosophical critiques of AI (“Was ist Künstliche Intelligenz? Was ist Denken?” on 12 November 2020). During the second talk, Dinah Pfau and I turned to perception. I went into some of the questions different scientific disciplines have asked on perception and what answer cognitive scientists have been giving, after which Dinah explained why perception, and vision in particular, has become such a central research theme in AI. She then walked us through an example of how a computer “sees” (“Bild im Kopf: Wie sehen Maschinen?” on 17 November 2020). My colleagues Florian Müller and Jakob Tschandl finally addressed language processing and expert systems (“Der Assistent in der Maschine” on 26 November 2020).
Artificial Intelligence in the Writing Lab
On 17 February 2020 the IGGI team introduces artificial intelligence to a group of teenagers taking part in the Writing Lab of the Deutsches Museum.
The Writing Lab is a place to get creative. Inspired by exhibits and staff talks on science and technology, the participants write science fiction stories. Among past themes are the anthropocene and medical research.
We’re looking forward to what they make of AI!
“Dear John”
“Dear John”: The Kin Selection Controversy. Re-staging of the May 2018 performance. The British Library, 15 March 2019. [available on the British Library’s SoundCloud]
“Dear John”: The Kin Selection Controversy. Sell-out performance in collaboration with Undercurrent Theatre. The British Library, 11 May 2018.
Neal Craig performing at the British Library, 2018. © Undercurrent Theatre, photograph by Grace Hopkins.
“Evolutionist Maynard Smith on Science and Religion”.
Part of the “Feed the Mind” series, in which researchers working at the British Library discuss their projects and highlights they have encountered in the collections.
The British Library, 12 November 2018. [available on the British Library’s SoundCloud]
Astbury Camera, or ‘From Dark Satanic Mills to DNA’ – with Dr Kersten Hall.
Lecture 11 in the “History and Philosophy of Science in 20 Objects” Lecture Series, organised by the Museum of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
University of Leeds, 24 January 2017. [available on the YouTube channel of the Museum of HSTM, University of Leeds]
Helen Piel 