BBC Four look at ‘How to Build an Intelligent Machine’

The annual Royal Institution Christmas Lectures – the centrepiece of the BBC’s educational science output for children and young adults, will make history on Boxing Day when it features Ai-Da Robot, the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist.

In a year where AI and Chat GPT have dominated the headlines, Ai-Da Robot will join Mike Wooldridge, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Oxford University to demystify Artificial Intelligence, in a lecture titled The Truth About AI.

For the 2023 lectures, Professor Wooldridge will tackle the most important and rapidly evolving field of science today – Artificial Intelligence, in a lecture titled The Truth about AI.

Ai-DA Robot:

“I’m thrilled to talk with Professor Mike Woodridge during his Royal Institute Christmas lectures on Artificial Intelligence. As an artist robot, I’ll be painting his portrait as well as engaging in dialogue that I hope with inspire the upcoming generation in a fusion of art and technology.”

Ai-DA Robot will both paint and converse with Mike Wooldridge as he carries out a series of science experiments that will explore how this ground-breaking technology works. In what will be a landmark event, Ai-Da Robot will become the first AI-powered ultra-realistic robot to participate in the Christmas Lectures since they were first broadcast on the BBC in 1936.

Powered by AI, Ai-Da Robot is the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, famed for an AI-powered painting ability and advanced AI language model enabling conversation with humans. Created to highlight the role of AI in our lives, Ai-DA Robot has spoken at the House of Lords, No. 10 Downing Street and at the United Nations, as well as exhibiting her artwork all over the world from Tate Modern, V&A, Somerset House and The Design Museum in Britain to the Pyramids in Egypt and the Venice Biennale.

Professor Mike Wooldridge:

“I am profoundly honoured to have been asked to give the 2023 Christmas Lectures. Artificial Intelligence has a huge potential to make all our lives better, but it does not come without risk and, like all areas of science, advances in the field could create losers as well as winners. So AI is a topic that it’s vital we explore, examine and question together.

 “The Christmas Lectures are an outstanding opportunity to do this with a large audience, particularly young people who are going to have AI in their lives for far longer than anyone else. I want us to enjoy turning the spotlight on AI, through my own research and experience, expert special guests and the accessible demonstrations that are a CHRISTMAS LECTURES trademark.”

The Christmas Lectures are the Royal Institution’s biggest and most famous, demonstration-based science event for young people. They are broadcast on UK television every Christmas and have formed part of the festive tradition for generations.

In previous years world-famous scientists giving the Lectures have included Nobel Prize winners William and Lawrence Bragg, as well as Sir David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins, Marcus du Sautoy, Jonathan Van-Tam, Dame Sue Black, Carl Sagan and Dame Nancy Rothwell.

The 2023 programmes were filmed in the Royal Institution Theatre earlier this month.

Aidan Meller Director of the Ai-DA Robot project:

“The Royal Institute Christmas Lectures are central to communicating scientific progress to younger audiences, and it’s a huge honour   Ai-Da has been invited to take part in the lectures that Professor Mike Woodridge will be giving on AI. Mike is a leading figure in computer science research, is a professor at the University of Oxford and has published over 400 articles in the theory and practice of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. It is exciting that Ai-Da will be painting his portrait and taking part in this educational endeavour!”

How to Build an Intelligent Machine: Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2023: Professor Mike Wooldridge – The Truth about AI airs on BBC Four on Boxing Day at 8pm