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Brave new bullsh*t
When
Sunday 7 September 2025
19:00 - 20:00
Format
Hybrid
Cost
Free to book
About
In an AI era, who wins and who loses?
Your future workday might look like this:
- You write bullet points.
- You ask a chat bot to expand them into a report.
- You send it to your boss…
- Who asks a chatbot to summarise it to bullet points.
Will AI help you to do your job or take it from you? Is it fair for AI to be trained on copyrighted material? Will any productivity gains benefit everyone or only a select few?
Join Professor Philip Wadler’s talk as he looks at the hopes and threats of AI, exploring who wins and who loses.
Tickets are free, but booking is essential.
Event type
Curious
Contributors
Professor Philip Wadler FRS FRSE
Professor of Theoretical Computer Science, University of EdinburghPhilip Wadler is Professor of Theoretical Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh and Senior Research Fellow at IOHK. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and an ACM Fellow.
Professor Wadler has received numerous accolades for his contributions to theoretical computer science, including the SIGPLAN Distinguished Service Award and the POPL Most Influential Paper Award. His academic journey has taken him to some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, with past positions or study at Stanford University, Xerox PARC, CMU, the University of Oxford, Chalmers University, the University of Glasgow, Bell Labs, and Avaya Labs. He has also held guest professorships in Copenhagen, Sydney, and Paris.
A prolific researcher, his work has been cited over 25,000 times, and he holds an h-index of over 70, according to Google Scholar. He contributed to the designs of Haskell, Java, and XQuery. Professor Wadler has delivered talks worldwide – from Aizu to Zurich – sharing insights that continue to shape the field of programming languages.
Contact us
If you have an event enquiry, please email us on public_engagement@theRSE.org.uk.Event testimonial
What is Curious?
Curious is the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s (RSE) free festival that celebrates the research, ideas and knowledge shaping society today.
Each year, Curious brings a packed programme of free in-person and online events covering themes from the arts, humanities, policy, science and more. To date, we’ve welcomed over 10,000 attendees for talks, workshops, exhibitions and discussions where you can learn from and speak with Scotland’s leading thinkers. As part of the RSE’s mission to make knowledge useful and accessible for everyone, Curious is open to anyone who wants to learn more about the world around them. No specialist knowledge is needed, just bring your curiosity.
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