Vi Gostling Memorial Lecture. Speaker: Paul Atkinson. It can feel like Artificial Intelligence is taking over. AI is in the news every day, celebrated as the answer to every problem, & feared as an existential threat to our jobs & our control over our own lives. As a psychotherapist, until recently I thought at least counselling & psychotherapy would be exempt from the march of the machines, that our emotional worlds would always need the attention of fellow suffering human beings. I was wrong. Private companies who provide Talking Therapies for the NHS are using recordings of millions of NHS sessions to teach AI ‘conversational agents’ how to be therapists, independent of human supervision.

Meetings start with a buffet at 7:30pm followed by a talk at 8:00pm, then discussion at about 9:00pm.

All meetings are free of charge. Voluntary donations welcome. No need to book. If you can, please bring some vegetarian/vegan food and drink to share.