Intelligent Machines month on BBC World News

BBC World News will feature a month devoted to artificial intelligence in its shows including Panorama, Click and Talking Business.

In a month-long special season entitled Intelligent Machines, BBC World News and BBC.com will uncover the revolutionary impact of artificial intelligence technology and smart robotics and how they are set to shape our future. The rate of development and innovation in AI is accelerating and with it comes a vast array of new technologies and new uses for computers – from advanced medical diagnosis and care for dementia patients to military applications, transport, predicting climate change and beyond.

The special coverage will see journalists from across the BBC reporting for TV, radio, online and social media.

Available on BBC.com, Google’s Eric Schmidt has penned an exclusive article on why artificial intelligence is experiencing such a renaissance and where it will go next.

The Talking Business team will be joined by a panel of experts in the field of artificial intelligence to discuss the future of the world we live in and uncover what the ethical implications of this evolving technology are. The programme will be broadcast from the UK’s home of computing history – The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park – on 19th September at 10.30am (AEST).

Also in Bletchley on 18th September, a special edition of BBC World Service’s Tech Tent comes from Britain’s wartime codebreaking centre, where the pioneering thinker about the concept of artificial intelligence, Alan Turing, worked and where the first programmable computer was built. Guests, including the robotics experts Murray Shanahan from Imperial College London and Kerstin Dautenhahn from the University of Hertfordshire, will discuss how far we’ve come on the road to intelligent machines. The programme will also preview the Loebner Prize which sees computers try to pass the Turing test.

The season will also feature an episode of BBC Panorama, fronted by Rohan Silva, which will air on the 19th September at 11.30am (AEST) and 6.30pm (AEST). With intelligent machines beginning to replace jobs like never before, Silva looks at the workplaces already using this new technology and asks whether we should feel threatened by it, or whether it will benefit all of us.

Other highlights of the season include two special episodes of Click, the BBC’s flagship technology programme, presented by Spencer Kelly. On 19th September at 4.30pm (AEST), Kelly looks into the artificial intelligence system that can automatically trawl through millions of chemicals to recommend new possible treatments for brain cancer sufferers, allowing for a more accurate and faster diagnosis.

In the episode of Click airing on 26th September at 4.30pm (AEST), Spencer Kelly tests an artificial intelligence known as Amelia, which is poised to replace jobs in the customer service industry. The system has the ability to consume huge amounts of technical data, such as manuals and schematics, and can use them to interact and help customers in a natural way. The system also learns from watching humans, becoming cleverer over time. The Click team will also visit the artificial intelligence research labs of Oxford University, giving the audience insight into cutting edge research from its labs.

BBC World Service and the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, California have come together to bring the thoughts and experience of revolutionary innovators in AI to a global audience. In this special radio recording of ‘Revolutionaries’, at the Computer History Museum, the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones will be joined by Artificial Intelligence Scientists Eric Horvitz and Cynthia Breazeal and a public audience, to discuss their work and how ‘machine-led intelligence’ is set to change the world. Revolutionaries: Artificial Intelligence will be recorded with an audience at the Computer History Museum and broadcast on BBC World Service on 3rd and 4th October.