Michael Wooldridge: Talking to the public about AI – #EAAI2021 invited talk

Michael Wooldridge is the winner of the 2021 Educational Advances in Artificial Intelligence (EAAI) Outstanding Educator Award. He gave a plenary talk at AAAI/EAAI in February this year, focussing on lessons he has learnt in communicating AI to the public. Michael's public science journey began in 2014 when the press and social media became awash with stories of AI. He wondered who was going to respond to these, often exaggerated, narratives and to add some nuance to the discussion. It turned out that nobody did, and there was a noticeable absence of expert opinion reported.