The 496th meeting of Henley Men’s Probus Club was held at Badgemore Park Golf Club on Tuesday 9th March2024.
The Chairman opened the 496th Henley Probus meeting and welcomed our newest member, Geoff Spurrier, to the club and then he introduced our guest speaker , newest member, Geoff Spurrier, to the club.
The Chairman then introduced our guest speaker Professor Dan Remenyi, PhD, who provided a most interesting and informative talk on the subject of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This was Dan’s second time addressing the club and his talk was on the seven key issues of AI Chatbots or what are now referred to as GenAI which is short for Generated Artificial Intelligence. Dan explained that nobody owns the term AI and so it is now being used in various ways including most recently, the refurbishment of Lord Nelson’s ship Victory. AI is difficult to define and means different things to different people. He told us that the field is changing constantly and currently incorporates words, images, numbers and sounds. The main worry when encountering AI is the huge amount of fakery. The software itself is not always precise and is full of transgender bias and so tries to make everything inclusive even when it clearly isn’t. The amount of money being poured into AI is eye watering and there are a lot of new organisations entering into the market.
Dan emphasised that a lot of the advice given by AI is incorrect and one must be cautious when using the information with the recommendation to double check everything. He pointed out that a lot of the research and development in the hardware that is used to run AI is done in Taiwan and that the major chip manufacturers were also located in Taiwan. Further Dan explained that a lot of the data upon which AI depends has been plagiarised and that there are now, and will be going forward, a good many cases concerning Individual Property Rights.
In conclusion the professor warned that there are a lot of scam investments, fake news, fake images, con artists and fakery associated with AI. He said that the Tsunami of Fakery is the biggest threat currently posed by Artificial Intelligence. We were very pleased to have Dan join us for lunch following the meeting and look forward to having come and give us more talks in the future. The talk concluded with thanks and a very warm message of appreciation from all members of the club.
The Chairman then closed the formal meeting and the members gathered for drinks followed by lunch.