NU Ideas | Season 4 Talk 6 | Staying safe in a fake world & Pain in robots

Thursday 16th April 2026 | 6pm

NU Ideas | Season 4 Talk 6

A series of talks in partnership with Northumbria University

Staying safe in a fake world

A talk by Dr. James Nicholson, Associate Professor Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Social engineering

In this talk we'll look at the clever tricks scammers use to trick people and how new technologies like AI are both helping and making it harder to spot these scams. You'll learn how to protect yourself online, including spotting fake messages and images, and understand why scammers do what they do.

Links to research: YouTube Link(Hard 2 Hack)

Pain, Immunity, and the Preservation of Autonomy in Robots

A talk by James O'Keeffe

Attention is increasingly turning to the role of artificial intelligence and autonomous robots in revolutionising the ways that a wide range of essential tasks and functions are performed. The potential of such systems in automating labour that is traditionally onerous, dangerous, and/or polluting is far reaching. However, one of the great barriers to progress is the risk of robot failure or loss of control. Faulty sensors, hardware, and errors of autonomous judgement can have potentially devastating consequences on people, the environment, and the robots themselves. The natural world provides a rich source of inspiration for the development of robots, which often attempt many of the same problems that evolution long-since found solutions to. For example, the mammalian immune system protects its host by detecting, memorising, and destroying infectious cells. It also causes inflammation around sites of injury, producing pain signals that discourage behaviours that exacerbate the damage. This session examines the potential and the challenges of developing artificial immune systems that would enable robots to autonomously monitor their own health and preserve their own autonomy in the real world.

A LIVE Lit & Phil Event | FREE

(If you would prefer to book directly over the phone, please call the Library Desk team on 0191 232 0192 and they will be happy to help)

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