The New Real Founder Professor Drew Hemment shared his expert views on the origins and the future of Artificial Intelligence in two features published in The Scotsman and The Herald.
Established in 2019, The New Real is a unique hub for AI, creativity and futures research. It is a partnership between the University of Edinburgh, Alan Turing Institute, and Edinburgh’s Festivals, exploring how AI impacts on life at a profound level.
Drew is an artist, designer, and academic researcher. He is Professor of Data Arts and Society, Chancellors Fellow and Director of Festival Futures at Edinburgh Futures Institute and Edinburgh College of Art.
In two editorials for The Herald and The Scotsman, Drew spotlights the University of Edinburgh’s 60 years of computer science and Artificial Intelligence, tracing its roots to a small group of researchers based in 4 Hope Park Square led by Donald Michie, who previously worked with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park.
In The Scotsman, Drew shares his views on the future of Artificial Intelligence – its potential uses as well as its pitfalls for the future of the planet.
Drew warns against the tendency to “anthropomorphise” AI and shares with The Scotsman that:
“They don’t have intent, they don’t have ideas, they don’t have personality, they don’t have either good or negative intentions. They’re just generating outputs based on statistical reasoning.
The New Real Salon: The Algorithmic Turn
Drew and the team from The New Real will lead the final event of Edinburgh Future Institute’s Love Machine season on 5 May at Inspace Gallery, Edinburgh in “The New Real Salon: The Algorithmic Turn”.
Exploring the interconnections of Artificial Intelligence and data with humanity, the “Love Machine” season is part of the University of Edinburgh’s yearlong celebration of 60 years of computer science and AI research.
In “The New Real Salon”, the New Real’s research team and their newly commissioned artist will showcase The New Real’s Platform, an unboxed AI tool created with and for artists. This tool provides artists with access to directly manipulate a model, in order to enable profound artistic experiments with AI.
“The New Real Salon” is free to join in-person and online, but in-person tickets are limited.
Drew said:
“EFI has built a reputation for groundbreaking work on AI Arts, that illuminates the ways emerging technology impacts on life at a profound level. It has become an important platform for artists, interdisciplinary researchers and thinkers and the general public to converge for the important debates of our times. Love Machine offers a fabulous series of events to discover the many ways that the University’s expertise in both AI and the arts is opening up this field.”
Further information
The Herald: How Edinburgh became world leader in artificial intelligence: Page 1 | Page 2
The Herald: How Edinburgh became world leader in artificial intelligence (online version)
The Scotsman: Rise of the machines: Is AI going to take over the world and can it save the planet?: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3
Discover The New Real’s 2023 programme and magazine
Find out more about the University’s celebration of 60 years of computer science and AI
View the full programme of Love Machine: Spring 2023 event season
