"Nearly 30 years after I built my first ‘proper’ robot, whilst studying for an MSc in Information Systems and AI here at the University of Nottingham, it was an absolute pleasure to host a forward-looking ‘AI & the Future of Work’ event for hundreds of alumni, staff, students and guests in the Business School this month.
"Many thanks to the academics, research centres, start-ups and corporates who provided such an eye-opening glimpse of real, deployable, AI-enabled systems and services. The applications and markets included brain scanning tools to aid medical diagnosis, ChatGPT enabled robo-dogs to help care for the elderly, cloud-based software capable of super-charging the creation of multimedia content, and the use of large scale data sets from mobile phone data to support national government investments in transport and health.
"As well as the chance to hear about - and in some cases try out - the latest AI developments and trends, our guests enjoyed the chance to network and mingle with each other. It was wonderful to see such a diverse range of graduates representing all Faculties and covering graduation dates spanning greater than 50 years.
"This event is the sort of thing universities should be doing: supporting and highlighting cutting edge trends and innovations to a wide audience, encouraging debate about the issues of the day, and facilitating the creation of new connections between alumni, academia, employers, governments and the wider public.
"Thank you to everyone involved for engaging so enthusiastically and my special thanks to the various university staff who made it happen."