Two one-day events in September: BCS SPECIALIST GROUP ON AI

BCS SPECIALIST GROUP ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (BCS-SGAI)

 

There are two one-day SGAI events arranged for September, both at the British Computer Society London office (near Moorgate underground station).

 

Trustworthiness and Safety in Generative AI - Friday September 11th 2026

https://www.bcs-sgai.org/genai2026/

 

Real AI 2026 - Friday September 25th 2026

https://www.bcs-sgai.org/realai2026/

 

There are online registration forms available from the event websites.

 

Trustworthiness and Safety in Generative AI - Friday September 11th 2026

Despite impressive breakthroughs in capabilities across text, vision, audio, and multimodal reasoning, current generative models remain prone to unpredictable failures and exhibit unresolved challenges in alignment, grounding, and robustness techniques, including hallucinations, instability under distribution shift, hidden internal representations, and limited theoretical understanding of how large‑scale models encode and propagate knowledge. This colloquium aims to create a forum for discussing cutting edge advances and emerging challenges in the trustworthiness and safety of generative AI.

 

The talks will include:

• Beyond the Pixel: Trustworthy and Safe Generative AI for Medical Image Quality Transfer
• Spoofing Deep Leakage Attacks in Federated Learning
• Can We Trust the Voice on the Line? Robust Audio Deepfake Detection from Real-World Calls to the First “Hi”
• The Scenic Route to Deception: Dark Patterns and Explainability Pitfalls in Conversational Navigation
• Differential Adjusted Parity for Learning Fair Representations
• Decision-theoretic uncertainty quantification in generative deep learning
• Zero Trust Architectures for Secure Multi-Agent AI Systems: From Identity to Collaboration Integrity

Registration fee: £50 (plus VAT) for BCS and SGAI members and £90 (plus VAT) for others. This includes attendance at the event, lunch and refreshments.

Students and unwaged: £35 (plus VAT).  Group discounts are also available.

 

Real AI 2026 - Friday September 25th 2026

This event is aimed less at deep AI specialists and more at those who may be interested in understanding what AI can offer, and what it is doing right now. The event will feature talks from leading exponents and case studies outlining practical applications of AI from a wide range of application domains. Plenty of time has been allowed in the programme for discussion.

 

The talks will include:

• Evolving the SDLC: Our Journey Towards Agentic Software Engineering
• Robotics in the Age of AI: Adoption, Illusion and Direction of Travel
• Is Judgement Uniquely Human?
• Agent Trust and Coordination in Autonomous Multi-Agent Cyber Defence Systems
• Agentic AI: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Three Real-World Use Cases

Registration fee: £90 (plus VAT) for BCS and SGAI members and £110 (plus VAT) for others. This includes attendance at the event, lunch and refreshments.

Students and unwaged: £50 (plus VAT).  Group discounts are also available.

 

Max Bramer, Chair, BCS-SGAI 

bcs-sgai.org

[And my source.]

Anti-Science countermeasures ...

'We are pleased to announce the winners for the 2025 Nature Awards for Standing Up For Science - The John Maddox Prize.

We are proud to announce that our Maddox Prize winner is Virginia Burkett, United States Geological Survey. Judges were impressed by her persistence, as a government adviser and an expert in coastal systems, in the face of opposition.' ...

https://www.nature.com/immersive/maddoxprize/winners/index.html

Virginia Burkett's five 'tips for resisting the anti-science lurch'

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

2. KEEP RECEIPTS (your memory) know your institution's scientific integrity policy	2. Never compromise on scientific integrity
3. Find allies 5. Be prepared for setbacks, e.g. relying on family and religious faith.	keep receipts (your defence) 4. KNOW YOUR INSTITUTION'S  SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY POLICY

My source:

Anjana Ahuja, Tips for resisting the anti-science lurch, Opinion, Research. Financial Times, Wednesday 5 November, 2025, p.20.

Global cost of silencing science BMJ ...

Editorials

Global cost of silencing science

BMJ 2025; 390 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1370 (Published 10 July 2025)Cite this as: BMJ 2025;390:r1370

'Public trust in scientific integrity is eroded by the politicisation of institutions under Donald Trump’s US presidency. The implications extend far beyond American borders, striking at the core of how scientific knowledge is produced, disseminated, and trusted worldwide.

Recent directives seek to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, cut federal funding to critical health research agencies, and restrict references to gender, race, and climate science in official documentation. Scientific staff at federal agencies face mounting pressure to comply with politically motivated communication policies. Such institutional interference not only distorts scientific findings—it undermines the principles of transparency and editorial independence outlined in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations.1 As members of ICMJE we feel compelled to speak out.

The ICMJE underscores that “editors should preserve the integrity of the scientific record by critically evaluating manuscripts free from undue influence and without compromising scholarly values.”1 Yet, under the current administration, several US federal science agencies require pre-approval for external publications—a direct contravention of these editorial standards.2 This climate of control stifles open inquiry and discourages evidence based discourse, particularly when scientific conclusions diverge from political narratives.'
...

'Independent scientific communication is equally under threat. Increasing pressure on government researchers to avoid controversial topics or reframe findings to suit political narratives creates an institutional chilling effect. Self-censorship born of fear may be more damaging than overt censorship. Researchers, particularly early career scientists and those from under-represented backgrounds, may choose to abandon public communication or controversial areas of inquiry altogether. This trend further narrows the scope of scientific innovation, limits the range of perspectives reflected in research agendas, and ultimately harms health.'
...

'This is a call for science grounded in ethical principles and dedicated to the service of humanity. Scientific research, especially in medicine and public health, is inherently intertwined with social justice. Silencing DEI initiatives, censoring climate science, and delegitimising minority researchers is not neutrality—it is complicity in perpetuating harm.'
...

Footnotes

This article is being jointly published by The BMJ, Deutsches Ärtzeblatt, Journal of Korean Medical Science, Lancet, La Tunisie Médicale, Medwave, and New Zealand Medical Journal.

References

1. ↵
   International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Recommendations. 2025. https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/
2. ↵
   Bush V. Science—the Endless Frontier. 75th anniversary edition. National Science Foundation, 1980. https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/2023-04/EndlessFrontier75th_w.pdf

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1370

My source: https://x.com/bmj_latest/status/1944478436489134350

Two heads are better than one, but ...

beware ...

 

 individual 

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

... team - group - department - organisation - Party ...

 

	group think

 

My source: Various