Public Understanding

How we will deal with the challenges presented by the pervasiveness of data and increasing use of artificial intelligence? There are no clear answers, but it is vital that we have a discussion.

We are taking an active role in this debate including. Some examples are given below.

• The Data Hide: A Monthly Meet-up in Sheffield on Data open to members of the public.
• Neil’s articles in the Guardian.
  • Article in The Guardian’s Media and Tech Network on How Africa can benefit from the data science revolution
  • Article in The Guardian’s media network on Digital Oligarchies in March 2015.
  • A round table on “The Implications of Internet of Things for Small Businesses”.
• We are active on social media (see e.g. @lawrennd and @walkingrandomly).
• Article in The Conversation on the Baidu and the Imagenet Competition
• Article in The Conversation in December 2013 on Facebook’s move into Machine Learning.
• We give public lectures on Uncertainty and Data Science.
• Schools lectures at all ages from 8 until 18.
• We participate in Sheffield Computer Science department’s “Cutlers’ Ambassadors Scheme” for school students.
• Participating in national debates at Nesta, the Guardian, the Royal Society Machine Learning Working Group, we have given advice to UK Cabinet Office for reports on Data Ethics and presented to the CSaP fellowship.