Join us at the Maughan Library to hear why libraries and archives matter more than ever for trust and knowledge in an AI‑driven world.
From Memory Stores To Machine Consciences: Libraries & Archives Preserve Society’s Values
In an age when artificial intelligence can generate, summarise, and simulate knowledge at scale, questions of trust, provenance, and public record have never been more important. This talk will explore why libraries and archives remain foundational civic institutions in a digital era — not as relics of paper, but as guarantors of memory, accountability, and intellectual integrity. Drawing on current debates around ethical AI, data stewardship, and algorithmic transparency, Michael will reflect on how society can ensure that machine intelligence is trained, governed, and audited against reliable sources of record. He will also introduce his current research, Ordinary Wisdom, an AI project focused on secure data custody, timestamping, and chain of provenance — a modern complement to the archival principles long practised by institutions such as King’s. Without being overblown, Michael believes strongly that enduring investments in preserving knowledge underpin both democratic trust and responsible innovation.
Date
Tuesday, 17 March 2026
Time
15:00 - 16:00 GMT
Cost
Free