AI at best can sharpen, develop and nurture human intelligence in all its forms, not least for those lacking specialist teachers in certain subjects, those with SEND and amongst those whose attendance record is low. But there is another side to AI. It could short-circuit deep learning, encourage over-dependence, and detract from the hard graft which is necessary in all real intellectual formation. The technology is developing at a frightening pace, and no one seems certain how it can be shaped and made safer, and indeed if either are possible. Some figures like Dominic Cummings are arguing that AI is already in charge and the battle has been lost. This timely conference will bring together a brilliant array of academics, practitioners, cultural leaders and policy makers in common cause of producing a manifesto to present to government on what we believe needs to be done to ensure that AI deepens educational opportunity for all, rather than undercuts and sacrifices it.

This event is hosted in partnership between the Centre for Data Futures and AI in Education

Schedule:

9:15: Registration opens

10:00: Opening talk by Sir Anthony Seldon

10:20: Q&A

10:30: Professor Rose Luckin

10:50: Q&A

11:00: Professor Sylvie Delacroix

11:20: Q&A

11:30: Coffee break

11:50: Professor Neil Lawrence

12:10: Q&A

12:20: TBC

12:40: Q&A

12:50: Panel discussion

13:20: Lunch

14:00: Roundtables to collectively refine ‘AI in education manifesto’

15:00: Last talk

15:30: Result of roundtables and closing remarks

16:00: Event finishes

 

Speaker Bio’s:

Sir Antony Seldon

Sir Anthony Seldon is a widely-respected authority on all matters relating to education, AI, Number 10 and Britain’s prime ministers. His first book on a prime minister, Churchill’s Indian Summer, was published forty years ago. He has since written or edited more than 50 books, many of which are best-sellers, including definitive insider accounts of the last seven prime ministers. Sir Anthony served as honorary historian of Number 10 Downing Street, chair of the National Archives Trust, and has interviewed most of the senior figures who have worked in Number 10 in the last fifty years. His most recent books are – The Path of Peace: Walking the Western Front Way (2022), Johnson at 10: The Inside Story (2023) and Truss at 10: How Not to Be Prime Minister (2024).

For 20 years he was a transformative headmaster, first at Brighton College and then Wellington College, one of the country’s leading independent schools. From 2015 to 2020 he served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham. In 2023 he was appointed Head of Epsom College for 18 months following the sudden loss of the Head. His foresight, vision and understanding of AI and its huge impact on education is renowned. He has now returned to Wellington College as the Founding Director of Wellington College Education to lead its development and evolution of global education, and to shape and refine what education should mean in the mid-21st century.

 

Professor Neil Lawrence

Neil Lawrence is the inaugural DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge where he leads the University’s flagship mission on AI, AI@Cam.

Neil has been working on machine learning models for over 25 years. He returned to academia in 2019 after three years as Director of Machine Learning at Amazon. His main interest is the interaction of machine learning with the real world. This interest was triggered by deploying machine learning in the African context, where ‘end-to-end’ solutions are normally required. This has inspired new research directions at the interface of machine learning and systems research, this work is funded by a Senior AI Fellowship from the Alan Turing Institute.

Neil has served as interim chair of the CDEI Advisory board, as an independent advisor for the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, on working groups with the Royal Society, and co-convening the Royal Society’s DELVE group for a multidisciplinary Covid-19 response.

Neil is also visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield and the co-host of Talking Machines. He is the author of the book The Atomic Human.

 

Professor Rose Luckin

Rosemary (Rose) Luckin is a Professor at University College London and Founder of Educate Ventures Research (EVR) who has spent over 30 years developing and studying AI for education. She is renowned for her research into the design and evaluation of educational technology and AI. She was named as one of the 20 most influential people in education in the Seldon List in 2017, the only non-US winner of the ISTE Impact Award, and one of Computer Weekly’s top 50 most influential women in technology for 2023. Rose regularly provides expert evidence to policymakers like the UK Parliament's House of Lords and House of Commons select committees and the European Commission.

Rose has published widely in academic journals, at international conferences, through books, and in news media (TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines). Her 2018 book, Machine Learning and Human Intelligence: The Future of Education for the 21st Century, has been translated into Mandarin and influenced many of China's leading AI companies. Her most recent book, AI for School Teachers (2022), is an essential and accessible guide to AI for anyone in education.

Rose also founded EDUCATE Ventures Research Ltd., a London hub for educational technology startups, researchers, and educators engaged in evidence-based edtech and leveraging data and AI to benefit education.

Rose has taught in secondary, further, and higher education. She has led many large interdisciplinary international research projects and held senior leadership roles in higher education, including as Pro Vice Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at the University of Sussex before joining UCL in 2006. She is President of the Self-Managed Learning College in Brighton and host of the EdTech podcast.

 

Professor Sylvie Delacroix

Sylvie Delacroix is the Inaugural Jeff Price Chair in Digital Law and the director of the Centre for data Futures (King’s College London). She is also a visiting professor at the University of Tohoku (Japan). Her research focuses on the role played by habit within ethical agency, the role of conversations as a moral experimentation window and (in that context), LLMs’ communication of non-quantifiable uncertainty. She also considers bottom-up data empowerment structures and the social sustainability of the data ecosystem that makes generative AI possible. The latter work led to the first data trusts pilots worldwide being launched in 2022 in the context of the Data Trusts initiative www.datatrusts.uk. Her latest book Habitual Ethics? was published by Bloomsbury in 2022 (open-access).