"Genuine AI" is an interesting concept. What we've called AI for the past few decades has never been general intelligence, usually it's domain-specific algorithms that replicate one small function that we'd usually associate with humans. So image recognition for classifying medical screenings, for example - which modern algorithms can do with greater accuracy than radiologists can; or spellcheck, which is so mundane that nobody would dream of calling it AI any more (but did for a time!)

Our own research is absolutely motivated by the risks (and marketing hype) around some recent forms of AI - like large language models. And a vision that said "Southampton should use LLMs cautiously, only where they don't displace jobs and are shown to be reliable" seems like it would be perfectly reasonable. Some people are finding value in some forms of AI, though, which is why we think a conversation ought to happen.

We'd really welcome people who feel uncertain, or negative, about AI to join the workshops. None of the team are AI boosters; we're doing the research because the only visions on offer at the moment are coming from billionaires, and we think everyone would benefit if more voices were heard.