St Leonards students join with St Andrews Rotary Club at AI forum at Madras College

The keynote speaker on the day was Dr Eve Poole OBE, who brought her wealth of AI experience, especially in the education sector, to the forum. Her book, ‘Robot Souls’ addresses the issues and ethics around the ever-accelerating use of AI. As such, she gave a keynote speech to the students about the direction of AI use, giving some remarkable examples of self-teaching AI technology and the inevitable direction that our use of AI is taking.

This was followed by an interactive session for the students, discussing their key questions and concerns about AI and its use and ethics. Dr Eve Poole then addressed their comments and questions, delivering great insight and balance as to what the advantages and benefits of AI were versus the drawbacks and threats. The students challenged Dr Poole with their questions that overall drew the conclusion that we as a society are going to have to learn to use AI as ethically as possible.

The question of whether robots should have rights also emerged, to which Dr Poole answered in the affirmative, in order to help regulate them, which will become more important over time.

Also discussed was the effect of AI on politics, particularly pertinent in this highly-charged political year. 'Should AI robots have a vote?' 'Should AI robots be made to look human?' were all questions that came up.

The students were all gripped by this ever-evolving avenue of thought and were very grateful to Dr Poole for her time and wisdom.

Congratulations to St Leonards pupils on their participation in an excellent event. We are also grateful to our local Rotarians for organising this event, another example of the positive difference they make in the lives of young people.