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In recent years, and certainly since the launch of ChatGPT, there has been massive public and professional interest in Artificial Intelligence. But people are confused about what AI is, what it can and cannot do, what is yet to come, and whether AI is good or bad for humanity and civilisation - whether it will provide solutions to mankind's major challenges or become our gravest existential threat. There is also confusion about how we should regulate AI and where we should draw moral boundaries on its use.

In How To Think About AI, Prof Richard Susskind draws on his experience of working on AI since the early 1980s. For Prof Susskind, balancing the benefits and threats of artificial intelligence is the defining challenge of our age. He positions ChatGPT and generative AI as no more than the latest chapter in the ongoing story of AI and claims we are still at the foothills of developments. He argues that to think responsibly about the impact of AI requires us to look well beyond todays technologies, suggesting that not-yet-invented technologies will have far greater impact on us in the 2030s than the tools we have today. This leads him to discuss the possibility of conscious machines, magnificent new AI-enabled virtual worlds, and the impact of AI on the evolution of biological humans.

In this book talk, Prof Susskind will discuss the main themes of the book with Prof Ian Goldin (Director of the Oxford Martin School Programmes on the Future of Work, Technological and Economic Change, and Future of Development).

Professor Richard Susskind CBE KC (Hon) is the world’s most cited author on the future of legal services and a leading expert on the impact of AI on society. He is President of the Society for Computers and Law and, from 1998 to 2023, he served as Technology Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. In 2024, Richard was appointed Special Envoy for Justice and AI to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth. Richard specialises in three fields – in the future of professional services, in the future of courts and dispute resolution, and in the impact of AI on society, business, and humanity. He advises leading professional firms, in-house legal departments, and governments and judiciaries around the world. In the 1980s, he wrote his doctorate on AI and the law at Balliol College, Oxford.

Richard’s work has been translated into 18 languages and he has been invited to speak in over 60 countries. He has written eleven books, including The Future of Law (1996), Tomorrow’s Lawyers (2013, 2017, 2023), The Future of the Professions (with D Susskind, 2015, 2022), Online Courts and the Future of Justice (2019, 2021) and How to Think About AI (2025). He has also contributed more than 150 columns to The Times. In 2000, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen. In 2023, Richard was appointed an Honorary King’s Counsel. He was promoted to CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the King's New Year Honours List 2025.

Professor Ian Goldin was the founding Director of the Oxford Martin School from September 2006 to September 2016. He is currently Oxford University Professor of Globalisation and Development, Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, a Professorial Fellow at the University’s Balliol College and responsible for the Oxford Martin School Programmes on the Future of Work, Technological and Economic Change, and Future of Development.

Book talk: 'How To Think About AI: A Guide For The Perplexed' with Prof Richard Susskind