Martin Hamilton gave a talk at the BCS on robots and AI. He discussed how AI has progressed from machine learning to advanced techniques like generative neural networks. Generative networks can now automatically generate images, text, code and other content. Hamilton also looked at future societal impacts, noting many jobs may be automated and discussing concerns around job losses. However, he remains optimistic about open access to AI through tools like TensorFlow and opportunities to experiment.

1. Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity?
Martin Hamilton @martin_hamilton #bcsevent
1Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017

2. About Jisc
» Not-for-profit company serving research and education:
› 18 million users of shared services like Janet, eduroam,
JiscMail, shared data centres
› Devising national deals with IT vendors and publishers,
e.g. Amazon,Google, Microsoft, Elsevier and Springer
› Providing advice and guidance to the sector on digital
technologies in research and education
» My role:
› Leading our Future and EmergingTechnologies team,
exploring emerging technologies like Augmented Reality
and brain computer interfaces
› Helping our members devise and implement their digital
strategies, and building the evidence base around new
technologies
2Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Pepper robot at Jisc Digifest 2017

3. » Not-for-profit company serving research and education:
› 18 million users of shared services like Janet, eduroam,
JiscMail, shared data centres
› Devising national deals with IT vendors and publishers,
e.g. Amazon,Google, Microsoft, Elsevier and Springer
› Providing advice and guidance to the sector on digital
technologies in research and education
» My role:
› Leading our Future and EmergingTechnologies team,
exploring emerging technologies like Augmented Reality
and brain computer interfaces
› Helping our members devise and implement their digital
strategies, and building the evidence base around new
technologies
About Jisc
3Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Pepper robot at Jisc Digifest 2017

4. » Not-for-profit company serving research and education:
› 18 million users of shared services like Janet, eduroam,
JiscMail, shared data centres
› Devising national deals with IT vendors and publishers,
e.g. Amazon,Google, Microsoft, Elsevier and Springer
› Providing advice and guidance to the sector on digital
technologies in research and education
» My role:
› Leading our Future and EmergingTechnologies team,
exploring emerging technologies like Augmented Reality
and brain computer interfaces
› Helping our members devise and implement their digital
strategies, and building the evidence base around new
technologies
About Jisc
4Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Pepper robot at Jisc Digifest 2017

5. What did your AI make today?
1. From machine learning to ‘artificial intelligence’
2. The new frontier: Generative neural networks
3. What’s next?
21/11/2017 Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 2017 5

6. 1. From machine learning
to ‘artificial intelligence’
21/11/2017 Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 2017 6

7. Thinking machines are not a new concept
7Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017

8. Thinking machines are not a new concept
8Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
http://www.turingarchive.org/

9. AI can be DIY
9Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Raspberry Pi powered talking AI usingGoogleTensorFlow

10. AI underpinnings…TensorFlow
10Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
TensorFlow open source machine learning - https://www.tensorflow.org

11. AI underpinnings… ImageNet
11Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
ImageNet image database - https://www.image-net.org

12. Machine learning in action - AI aces video games
12Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Google DeepMindAI learns to play Breakout

13. Machine learning for real time image classification
13Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Object detection via Darknet neural network, by Karol Majek - https://github.com/karolmajek

14. Rise of the robots
14Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017

15. But… how does it work?
15Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Neural network in 11 lines of Python
https://iamtrask.github.io/2015/07/12/basic-python-network/

16. AI for predictive analytics in teaching and learning
16Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
VLE data
+
Student record system
+
Attendance data
+
Library data
Buildings data
+
Learning space data
+
Location data
Teaching quality data
+
Assessment data
+
Curriculum design
data
Content data
+
Learning pathways
data
Better retention
and attainment
Retention and
attainment
Retention and
attainment
Retention and
attainment
A more efficient
campus
Improved teaching
& curricula
Personalised and
adaptive learning
Efficient campus Efficient campus
Improving teaching
& curricula
Now
Learning
analytics
Institutional
analytics
Educational
analytics
Adaptive
Analytics and AI
Future

17. 2.The new frontier:
Generative and recurrent neural networks
21/11/2017 Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 2017 17

18. It’s all cats from here…
18Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017

19. It’s all cats from here… (and cat monsters)
19Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017

20. It’s all cats from here… (and dogs!)
20Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Trending image from Deep Dream Generator - https://deepdreamgenerator.com/

21. Artistic style transfer
21Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Research from the University of Freiberg - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.08610

22. AI generated Shakespeare
22Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
From http://karpathy.github.io/2015/05/21/rnn-effectiveness/
VIOLA:Why, Salisbury must find his flesh and thought
That which I am not aps, not a man and in fire,
To show the reining of the raven and the wars
To grace my hand reproach within, and not a fair are hand,
That Caesar and my goodly father's world;
When I was heaven of presence and our fleets,
We spare with hours, but cut thy council I am great,
Murdered and by thy master's ready there
My power to give thee but so much as hell:
Some service in the noble bondman here,
Would show him to her wine.
KING LEAR: O, if you were a feeble sight, the courtesy of your law,
Your sight and several breath, will wear the gods
With his heads, and my hands are wonder'd at the deeds,
So drop upon your lordship's head, and your opinion
Shall be against your honour.

23. AI generated Linux kernel code
23Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
From http://karpathy.github.io/2015/05/21/rnn-effectiveness/

24. But… how does it work?
24Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Generative adversarial networks in a nutshell - from https://www.analyticsvidhya.com

25. AI for educational content generation
25Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
» Jisc Startups competition
› Six month accelerator programme
› Support package includes cash grant and
mentoring
» Winners: Wildfire Learning
› World’s first AI content creation service for
learning
› Create learning objects from any text,
PowerPoint or video
› Generate a course’s worth of content in an
hour
› http://www.wildfirelearning.co.uk

26. 3. What’s next?
21/11/2017 Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 2017 26

27. Help! My co-worker is a robot
27Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Photo CC BY-NC Flickr user feuilllu
Photo CC BY-NC Flickr user nestle
› Pepper acts as greeter in 140+ SoftBank stores in Japan
› Nestlé planning to introduce in 1000+ sales outlets

28. Help! My co-worker is a robot
28Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017

29. Alexa, order me a warehouse full of robots
29Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Photo CC BY-NC Flickr user greenplasticamy
› Amazon uses over 45,000 robots already in its
warehouses and distribution centres

30. Alexa, order me a warehouse full of robots
30Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Photo CC BY-NC Flickr user greenplasticamy
› Amazon uses over 45,000 robots already in its
warehouses and distribution centres

31. What’s next?
31
Societal impact of AI
› More jobs susceptible to automation than you
might have thought, e.g. for self-driving
vehicles alone:
– 350,000 registered taxi drivers in the UK
– 3.5m truck drivers in the US
› AI doesn’t care what colour your collar is
› New Luddites?
– Throwing stones at the Google bus?
– Brexit versus globalisation?
› SiliconValley optimism
– Don’t Be Evil
Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
CC BY Flickr user boykoblagoev

32. What’s next?
32
Societal impact of robots and AI
› More jobs susceptible to automation than you
might have thought, e.g. for self-driving
vehicles alone:
– 350,000 registered taxi drivers in the UK
– 3.5m truck drivers in the US
› AI doesn’t care what colour your collar is
› New Luddites?
– Throwing stones at the Google bus?
– Brexit versus globalisation?
› SiliconValley optimism
– Don’t Be Evil
– Also… Drones with Chainsaws
Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Via https://www.popsci.com
CC BY Flickr user boykoblagoev

33. What’s next?
33
Conclusions
› AI can already do far more than most people realise
› Lots of new terminology - AI, {Machine, Deep}
Learning, {Convolutional, Adversarial, Recurrent}
Neural Networks, Long ShortTerm Memory(!)
› GPUs and FPGAs now readily available via hyperscale
cloud providers - per second billing!
› AI doesn’t have to be a mystery - lots of open source
code you can experiment with, e.g.
– TensorFlow: https://www.tensorflow.org/
– Darknet: https://pjreddie.com/darknet/
› More from us at Jisc:
https://innovativetechnology.jiscinvolve.org
Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Pepper robot at Jisc Digifest 2017

34. What’s next?
34
Conclusions
› AI can already do far more than most people realise
› Lots of new terminology - AI, {Machine, Deep}
Learning, {Convolutional, Adversarial, Recurrent}
Neural Networks, Long ShortTerm Memory(!)
› GPUs and FPGAs now readily available via hyperscale
cloud providers - per second billing!
› AI doesn’t have to be a mystery - lots of open source
code you can experiment with, e.g.
– TensorFlow: https://www.tensorflow.org/
– Darknet: https://pjreddie.com/darknet/
› More from us at Jisc:
https://innovativetechnology.jiscinvolve.org
› But let’s go out with a song…
Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Pepper robot at Jisc Digifest 2017

35. What’s next?
35Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017
Mr Shadow – song composed by Sony CSL Research Laboratory’s AI

36. That’s all folks!
36
Except where otherwise noted, this
work is licensed under CC-BY
Connect with me:
Martin Hamilton
Futurist, Jisc, London
@martin_hamilton
martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
Robots & AI, the calm before the Singularity? – Martin Hamilton – BCS invited talk, November 201721/11/2017