CANCELLED - Talking with machines Alice Rhodes, Department of English and Related Literature and Siobhan Dunlop, Information Services

Event details

Information Services Lecture

Please note that due to unforeseen circumstances this lecture is cancelled.  Please accept our apologies for any disappointment. 

What connects the grandfather of Charles Darwin to artificial intelligence? How have humans tried to talk to machines, make machines talk, and use technology to find ways to communicate? What do talking machines say about us?

Machines have been talking since long before the advent of Alexa and other virtual assistants. The history of our fascination with teaching human creations to talk is varied and can provide insights how we might use technology in new, exciting, and potentially frightening ways to communicate with both computers and each other.

In this lecture, we will explore the past, present, and future of machine communication and how people react to machines talking. From eighteenth and nineteenth century speaking machines to Twitter ‘bots’, we’ll look at automated speech, what machines say, and how this affects our ideas about them. We’ll explore teaching machines to talk with Frankenstein, machine learning, and Black Mirror, and present some of the ways that machines have helped us communicate throughout history.

Please note that due to unforeseen circumstances this lecture is cancelled.  Please accept our apologies for any disappointment. 

About the speakers