RSI Talk - Turing Among the Robots - The Hidden Histories (and Possible Futures) of AI

Turing Among the Robots: The Hidden Histories (and Possible Futures) of AI. In 1948, the venerable American mathematician Norbert Wiener published Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Despite its arcane title and bewildering mathematics, Cybernetics became an instant best seller and changed the world. Far more than in name only, it’s the reason humanity now inhabits cyber. This talk will explore long neglected connections between Alan Turing and the cybernetics movement; and, relatedly, a hitherto overlooked yet formative schism between cybernetics and AI. From these historical roots, we can trace some of the potential future trajectories for the development and military use of AI, autonomous systems and human machine teaming.