Machine learning and artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence and machines that train themselves might sound like a plot from a science fiction movie, but these things are already part of our everyday lives. How can a machine learn to distinguish a picture of a cat from a picture of a dog?   At the Heidelberg Laureate Forum in 2019, Chris Budd, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Bath, talked us through the basics of how these learning machines tick.  While Raj Reddy, Turing Award winner and artificial intelligence pioneer, talked to us about his grand challenges in artificial intelligence, and why time travel and immortality might be easier to achieve than creating a machine that rivals human intelligence. To find out more about machine learning, its history, and some of the moral questions it raises, read the series of articles based on Chris' Gresham College lectures.  The music in this podcast is from Oli Freke, and the track is called "Experimental 5". You can find his music at soundcloud. This podcast, first published in August 2020, was partially funded by the European Mathematical Society.