Alien Intelligence: AI and the Future of Architecture and Urbanism

Everyone is talking about AI these days. But what exactly is AI? How did it evolve? And what potential does it have to influence the future?

In this lecture, Professor Leach takes you on a rollercoaster ride looking at the extraordinary – but often somewhat terrifying – potential of what is arguably the most significant invention of humankind. The lecture concludes that we are about to face a radically different form of intelligence – an ‘alien intelligence’ – that will far exceed human intelligence, and completely transform the disciplines of architecture and urban planning.

Neil Leach is an architect and professor from the UK.

He currently directs the Doctor of Design program at Florida International University (FIU), and has also taught at the Architectural Association, Harvard GSD, Columbia GSAPP, Cornell, IaaC and SCI-Arc.

He is the co-founder of DigitalFUTURES, an online educational platform; a former researcher for NASA, where he developed 3D printing technologies for the Moon and Mars; and a member of the Academia Europaea, Europe’s leading academy with over 50 Nobel laureates.

He has published over 40 books on architectural theory and digital design, translated into eight different languages. He is currently working on AI, and is the author of the first book on architecture and AI, Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to AI for Architects (Bloomsbury 2021 – second edition 2024), Co-Editor of Machine Hallucinations: Architecture and Artificial Intelligence (Wiley, 2022), and author of the AI Design Revolution (Routledge 2025).

Host or Publisher Melbourne School of Design