Real Power • 2020 • episode "S1E4" • Becoming Human

56:12

Tech billionaires launch a new generation of aerospace companies, setting their sights on colonizing Mars and exploring the universe.

S1E4 • Blue Sky Metropolis • 2020 • Technology

20:14

The Singularity, or the arrival of superhuman intelligence, has been described as both the “rapture of the nerds” and inevitable. Futurist and philosopher Jason Silva explores the ways in which this radical transformation may occur through biotechnology, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence.

2016 • Technology

50:00

The world's cities are growing at a faster rate than ever before. An estimated 75 million people around the world move to an urban area every year. And as our metropolises become more and more crowded, architects, designers, and builders face a constant challenge.

S1E3 • How Cities Work • 2013 • Technology

42:05

Outer space has been transformed from a realm of scientific endeavor to the US military's newest battlefield. From anti-satellite missiles to laser technology, discover the cutting-edge race to build the ultimate space weapon.

S8E7 • Space's Deepest Secrets • 2021 • Technology

59:00

Mike Wooldridge reveals the huge role AI already plays in our daily lives – sometimes without us even realising its role. Mike investigates how games like chess and Go have become a training ground for AI, helping to bring about key advances we are now seeing in the field, and he reveals how simple methods of learning, like rewarding success, have been used to train AI in spectacular ways. We also feature some of the revolutionary innovations that AI has brought about in healthcare, from the use of AI tools in planning cancer treatment, to monitoring Parkinson's. Mike is joined by members of DeepMind's AlphaFold team, who use AI to predict the structures of large numbers of proteins, which will revolutionise the creation of new drugs across the world. We also reveal the huge impact AI has had on our creative lives – as it is able to write songs and create artworks in seconds. With the help of artist Eric Drass (aka shardcore), the audience creates a collaborative artwork and discovers how image generation works. Mike explores the thorny question of who the creator is – the AI itself, the human who set it to work, or the creators of the art that AI has learned from? The Christmas Lectures are the most prestigious event in the Royal Institution calendar, dating from 1825, when Michael Faraday founded the series. They are the world's longest running science television series, and always promise to inspire and amaze each year through explosive demonstrations and interactive experiments with the live theatre audience.

S1E2 • BBC Royal Institution Christmas Lectures: The Truth about AI • 2023 • Technology

48:01

Enlai explores how natural intelligence inspires artificial intelligence. He meets A.I. that is trained to think like artists, musicians, doctors, and scientists, and he learns how A.I. can outsmart us

S1E2 • Becoming Human • 2020 • Technology