Hosted by the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, an online seminar series “The Science and Science Fiction of AI” began on March 15, divided into seven sessions that are scheduled to end on May 17. First session was pertaining to a topic perhaps less rigid than the usual: “Now Is Not the Future of the Past: A Conversation with Murray Shanahan”. With this bold title, Murray Shanahan, a senior research scientist at DeepMind and Professor of Cognitive Robotics at Imperial College London, was invited as a guest speaker. He engaged the audience in a fascinating conversation about the nebulae of possibility that science can bring to mankind in the near future. 

Beginning the conversation with his initial interest in the scientific field, Shanahan reminisced upon how Isaac Asimov’s book, I, Robot, drew him into the world of science. Aspiring to be like Susan Calvin, the robot psychologist in the novel, he was fascinated with understanding things that are similar to mankind yet alien — like robots. Following this passion, Shanahan ended up being not too different from his fictional hero.

Publishing across numerous topics like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more, Shanahan is very active in his work. He has written books himself, Embodiment and the Inner Life (2010) and The Technological Singularity (2015) in addition to assuming the role of scientific advisor for the film Ex Machina. He claims that this passion of his has enabled him to continue his professional life; “my love of programming and coding is really the thing that sustained me throughout my life.”

Shanahan also discussed portrayals of the exotic in science fiction, exclaiming that he is “fascinated by the philosophical exercise of using your imagination to explore the possibilities for what mind could be.” What truly fascinates him about science fiction is how the genre “explores deep questions in the philosophy of mind.” Additionally remarking on artificial intelligence, he believes that “we can somehow understand them because we built them and at the same time we can understand ourselves a bit better.”

The topic might have seemed more casual compared to those of other similar events, the insights and experience the speaker delivered were no less significant. While the conversation itself was very casual, Shanahan provided his insight as a pioneer of science while keeping the audience interested, giving students a chance to think more about the implications of science fiction.