'The Art of Uncertainty' in conversation with Sir David Spiegelhalter

Join us for 'The Art of Uncertainty', a groundbreaking event organised by the Centre for Data Futures, featuring renowned statistician Sir David Spiegelhalter, celebrating the release of his latest book 'The Art of Uncertainty 'How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck. This interdisciplinary gathering will bring together experts from statistics, computer science, philosophy, medicine and education to explore how our navigation of uncertainty—particularly its unquantifiable forms—is evolving in the era of data-driven technology.

We'll delve into the profound impact of large language models and other AI technologies on our understanding and management of uncertainty across various fields. Don't miss this unique opportunity to engage in cutting-edge discussions at the intersection of technology and collective sense-making, as we reimagine ways of learning through uncertainty in the 21st century.

Sir David Spiegelhalter will give a presentation followed by a panel discussion featuring Lorenzo Zucca, Richard Lehman and Yulan He with Sylvie Delacroix acting as Chair.

Schedule:

18:00 Introduction by Sylvie Delacroix

18:05 Sir David Spiegelhalter

18:25 Panel discussion

18:45 Q&A

19:00 Drinks and nibbles

Speaker Biographies:

Sir David Spiegelhalter

Sir David is Emeritus Professor of Statistics in the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, having previously held the posts of Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk, and Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication. He works on ways to improve the way that statistical evidence is used by health professionals, patients, lawyers and judges, media and policy-makers. He was knighted in 2014 for services to medical statistics. His career highlights include appearing on Desert Island Discs in 2022, and in 2011 coming 7th in an episode of BBC1’s Winter Wipeout.

Lorenzo Zucca

Lorenzo is an internationally renowned scholar whose work bridges law, philosophy, politics, history, and literature. His academic journey has taken him through Paris, Oxford, Florence, and New York, before establishing his current position in London.

He is the author of Constitutional Dilemmas: Conflicts of Fundamental Legal Rights in Europe and the USA (Oxford University Press, 2007), a key reference in constitutional theory and comparative constitutional law, and A Secular Europe: Law and Religion in the European Constitutional Landscape (Oxford University Press, 2012), which critically examines religious freedom, toleration, and European identity. His prolific body of work also includes numerous influential articles on human rights theory and constitutional law.

His latest project, The Poet of Uncertainty, is a groundbreaking investigation into Shakespeare's exploration of power, knowledge, and the human condition. This ambitious work examines the philosophical and psychological dimensions of Shakespeare's writings, offering fresh insights into human cognition and the structure of social and political institutions. It presents Shakespeare’s contribution to humanity as rooted in the ability to transform uncertainty and mystery into sources of creative imagination

Richard Lehman

Richard is a retired GP who became well known for his weekly reviews of the medical literature in the BMJ over many years. From 2017-2021 he was Professor of the Shared Understanding of Medicine at the University of Birmingham. He is now Honorary Senior Research Fellow at KCL with a special interest in the potential value of generative AI in primary care around the world.

Yulan He

Yulan is a Professor in Natural Language Processing at the Department of Informatics in King’s College London. She obtained her PhD degree from the University of Cambridge. Yulan is currently holding a 5-year UKRI Turing AI Fellowship. Yulan’s research interests lie in the integration of machine learning and natural language processing for text understanding. Recently, she has focused on addressing the limitations of Large Language Models (LLMs), aiming to enhance their reasoning capabilities, robustness, and explainability. She has published over 250 papers on topics such as machine reading comprehension, model interpretability and trustworthy AI, NLP for health, finance and education. She has received several prizes and awards for her research, including a SWSA Ten-Year Award, a CIKM Test-of-Time Award, and AI 2020 Most Influential Scholar Honourable Mention.

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Host or Publisher The Dickson Poon School of Law