Weekend of AI

Everyone wants to talk about AI, so we’re putting together a set of conversations with a distinctive tone so that they will rise effortlessly above the chatter. They’ll be serious, of course, but also wide-ranging and imaginative – exactly what our errorists have come to expect.

This AI moment could change everything. We might be living in the shadow of an extinction event. Or perhaps living through the early years of an age of abundance, in which all our jobs will vanish. And maybe all that is hype to puff up pre-IPO valuations. Whatever it turns out to be, young people should live through several decades of this huge social transformation, so the Weekend will start on Friday 30th October, thinking especially about students’ concerns about how to use AI and how to thrive as it becomes ever-present.

We’ll use the Friday workshops as a springboard for the discussions on Saturday 31st October and Sunday 1st November, where you can expect us to try and cover what AI is, what might happen to the economy, who AI will be good for, how its emergence will affect investment management, how to approach new risks to security and organisational governance, and even what it will mean to be human while living with AI.

It’s Halloween on Saturday, so expect there to be a screening of a classic film – more to be revealed, but it should be pretty special. And we’ll wrap up the weekend with a workshop which will reflect on everything that we’ve heard, giving it a uniquely creative twist.

Info: Our speakers will give short talks about the challenges of adapting to AI for students, especially in HE. They’ll be responding to the students’ question “Why can’t I use AI in my dissertation when my internship employer expected me to be an expert with it?” by posing their own questions.

Info: Drawing on expertise in learning and teaching, we will invite students in to think more deeply what they are trying to do in their studies. They’ll need to respond to questions about where they find AI useful, where they would like to use it, but are told not to; where they might use it clandestinely; situations in which they might choose not to use it; and what benefits they can imagine for themselves when they choose not to use it.

Info: We have another two speakers whose short talks respond to the question, “Has AI just eaten my career?” again posing questions, rather than trying to answer them.

Info: This time, drawing on expertise in career advising and student development we will invite students to think about what sorts of habits and social activities are likely to ensure alignment between their emerging capabilities and the likely expectations of employers. We’ll encourage them to think about where organisations are likely to replace human inputs with generative and agentic AI, but also where AI might be a set of tools enabling them to work more effectively.

Info: Concentrating on a discipline which has a well-established infrastructure for the development of learning and teaching capabilities, this will be an opportunity for academics to reflect on the outputs from the student workshop, understand more about the Economics Network’s emerging workstream to engage with classroom activity adaptation to the capabilities of AI, and discern practical possibilities for being at the forefront of change.

Info: Everyone knows about generative AI, and how they can use large language models to generate text and images, but that’s just one very recent development. Computer scientists have sought to develop machine-based intelligence for 80 years and it plays an important role in the development of almost all modern machines. As the starting point for our discussions, we explore the width of possible applications of AI: making, doing, and thinking.

Info: Starting from the fact that it is only in the last three centuries that have been able to sustain economic growth, this conversation will explore what we know about the history of social development, before turning to what we know about changing patterns of employment as AI proliferates, as well as considering possible longer term scenarios for development, including the possibility of an age of abundance.

Info: The rise of AI will change the structure of society and there will be both winners and losers. These are not just going to be neutral tools and we explore two possibilities in this session. With sufficient forethought and political control, they might promote wider social development, dissolving inequalities of opportunity. Without vigorous public scrutiny of their development, though, there is the possibility that they will entrench existing social structures, perhaps deepening inequality, for example through increasing unemployment.

Info: Investment management relies on substantial information flows, given that asset prices reflect all relevant information. Active fund management typically involves carefully defined decisions to take positions in the market. Conduct regulation and governance requirements have added substantially to the need to document evidence supporting these processes. With the emergence of AI, the whole process of identifying and analysing prospects will change, affecting all these processes. In this session, we take a snapshot of progress in this rapidly changing environment.

Info: Picking up very much from where we finished on Saturday, we’ll challenge the tech-bros’ assertion that AI is so dangerous that they must be allowed to manage its development. We’ll review how AI companies think that they can manage security with the possibilities for regulation and democratic oversight. We’ll also think about what we can learn from existing processes for managing cyber-security.

Info: When they’re not telling us that AI is so dangerous that it will K*ll us all, AI companies are enthusiastically claiming that they are about to deliver an age of abundance in which we’ll see technological progress accelerate unimaginably. What might the future hold? Opulence or death? Or something much more familiar? And what will it mean to be human?

Info: We’re delighted to welcome back Liam Rees (The Land That Never Was), who has an opportunity to make a new play focused on technology. From our podcasts and by sampling sessions, Liam will start his workshop with some ‘provocations’ – things people have said about which he wants to know participants’ thoughts. An interactive, AI free end to the Weekend of AI, which will fuel the making process for Liam’s play over the next year.

Event venue & nearby stays

Library of Mistakes, 33A Melville Street Lane, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

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