This is not the AI we were promised

Contemporary AI systems like ChatGPT are remarkable. They appear to be confident, articulate experts that can turn their hand to anything we might care to ask them about. It is easy to be dazzled and to conclude that the long-held dream of truly intelligent machines is no longer a dream but a practical reality. Yet these new AI behemoths present a conundrum. While on the one hand, they truly are remarkable, they manifestly fail many of the most basic tests of rational intelligence. For one thing, they simply don't know, and can't tell, what is true and what isn't. They are hopelessly inconsistent; they have no sense of the limits of their knowledge or abilities; they are comically suggestible; and they are easily steered to flights of surrealistic fantasy. AI researchers are busy inventing a completely new field of experimental AI to try to get to grips with these bizarre new artefacts. This is all the more surprising because it is so far removed from popular expectations of what AI would be like: remorselessly logical. So what are we to make of it all? How should we think about the new AI?

In his talk, Professor Michael John Wooldridge will look at how the new AI works and why, as a consequence, it exhibits these weird, frustrating, fascinating behaviours. He will show just how far the new AI is from classical expectations and talk about the next frontiers for AI - and how far we are from the dream.

• The lecture can be attended in person at the Royal Society.
• Please be aware that as this is a free event, we anticipate that not everyone who reserves tickets will use them and we therefore make more tickets available than there are seats. You are highly unlikely to be refused entry but please be aware that admission is on a first-come, first-served basis and not guaranteed. Please arrive early to secure a seat
• Doors will open at 6pm.
• Live subtitles will be available in-person and virtually.

Find travel and accessibility information on our website. Please email us with any access requirements or questions.

• The lecture will also be livestreamed on the Royal Society YouTube channel.
• No ticket is required to watch online.
• This event will be recorded (including the live Q&A) and will be available on YouTube shortly after the event.

The Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture 2025 is awarded to Professor Michael John Wooldridge for award-winning work as a leading researcher, educator and commentator in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) whose popular science books, lectures and media appearances have informed millions.

Michael Wooldridge is the Ashall Professor of the Foundations of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford. He has been an AI researcher for more than 30 years and is one of the founders of the field of multi-agent systems. He is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Association for the Advancement of AI (AAAI) and is currently co-editor in chief of “Artificial Intelligence” journal. He presented the 2023 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, broadcast by BBC TV over December 2023, in the 198th year of the series.

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