Stephen Fry hospitalised after stage fall in London

Jeopardy Australia host Stephen Fry was rushed to hospital after falling from the O2 stage in London last week.

Fry, 66, was at the venue on 14 September to deliver a speech on Artificial Intelligence at the CogX Festival technology conference.

As he was exiting the stage, he reportedly fell two metres to the floor, sustaining rib and leg injuries before being taken to hospital for treatment.

An unnamed source said, “It looked like it was too dark and there didn’t look like there was a handrail…. He looked to have been hurt as he had to leave in a wheelchair.”

“We were called today at 11.31am to reports of an incident at the O2 Arena, in Peninsula Square,” a London Ambulance Service spokesperson said, without confirming the patient’s identity.

“We sent a medic in a fast-response car, an ambulance crew, and an incident response officer to the scene.”

His current condition is unknown, although he reportedly remains in hospital.

A spokesperson for CogX said, “We were deeply concerned to hear of Stephen’s accident after giving his inspirational speech on the impact of AI.

“We are thinking of him and wishing him a swift recovery. We have opened our own enquiry and until then we are not able to share any further details.”

During his speech, Fry had cautioned against the dangers of AI, playing the audience a clip of what appeared to be his voice narrating a historical documentary.

“I said not one word of that – it was a machine,” Fry revealee. “Yes, it shocked me. They used my reading of the seven volumes of the Harry Potter books, and from that dataset, an AI of my voice was created and it made that new narration

“What you heard was not the result of a mash-up. This is from a flexible artificial voice, where the words are modulated to fit the meaning of each sentence. It could therefore have me read anything from a call to storm Parliament to hard porn, all without my knowledge and without my permission. And this, what you just heard, was done without my knowledge.”

Nine has completed filming of Jeopardy Australia specials due to screen in 2024.

Source: Independent, New Daily