King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence delivers 2025 Festival to over 3600 attendees

The King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence hosted the 45 events across four London locations - King's Strand Campus, Guy's Campus, the London Institute for Healthcare Engineering, Science Gallery London - and online. All events were free and open to the public.

Over 150 academics from King's nine faculties participated alongside external and guest speakers from organisations including the British Academy, Microsoft, Responsible Ai UK, Amazon Web Services, LSE Data Science Institute, Stealth AI Startup, Bletchley Park Trust, and Climate Policy Radar, demonstrating the cross-sector collaboration essential for addressing AI's complex challenges.

The festival opened with a panel at Science Gallery London which asked: how can we make AI work for all? Sir Professor Bashir M. Al-Hashimi, Co-Director of the King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence, set the tone with his opening remarks: 'At one end of the spectrum, AI will threaten our existence. On the other, it could lead us to live a better life. King's approach to AI focuses on how we can harness AI for the benefit of humanity.'

Hetan Shah (the British Academy), Zephaniah Chukwudum (Microsoft), Robin Carpenter (Newton's Tree) and Dr Nessa Keddo, Professor Elisabeth Kelan, and Professor Carmine Ventre (King's) explored the potential of AI to benefit our society and how policy makers should respond to make AI work for all, more equally, in the future.

Healthcare programming showcased King's leadership in medical AI research. In a sold-out talk at the London Institute for Health Engineering, Professor Sebastien Ourselin explored the use of AI to transform care across UK hospitals, while over at King's Strand Campus, Dr Paris Alexandros Lalousis examined AI's role in mental health care. The week featured dedicated showcases of AI and healthcare research from colleagues across King's, alongside workshops on AI image recognition and barriers to accessing health data for AI research in the UK.

The healthcare strand culminated in 'AI and Healthcare: Your Questions Answered' where the panel, featuring Pankaj Chandak, Professor Prokar Dasgupta, Professor Anita Grigoriadis and Professor Elvira Perez Vallejos, addressed key realities of AI and healthcare including AI's potential to amplify rather than replace human expertise, the importance of personalised care, and the gap between AI hype and current clinical implementation.

Educational transformation featured prominently, with the theme curated and chaired by Dr Martin Compton. There were showcases of work in AI and education from across King's faculties, demonstrating how to develop critical AI literacy, the opportunities for personalised learning experiences, a GenAI-powered assistant for King's students, and more. Workshops examined usage in dissertations, assessments and medical student placements, the prospect of enhancing thinking through AI, and diversity and inclusion challenges in AI development.

Sustainability discussions tackled the environmental implications of AI through sessions on 'AI and Sustainability in Business: Balancing Opportunity and Risk' with the Centre for Sustainable Business and 'Building Awareness Towards Greener AI,' addressing the critical balance between AI innovation and environmental responsibility. The Net Zero Centre convened a panel to look at the role of AI-enabled market-based finance for a net zero future.

The festival also examined AI and creativity, with joint events with the King's Digital Futures Institute exploring the digital futures of literature and AI and deception with a live magic show. Other sessions explored AI's role in translating ancient languages, how AI could help writers better understand their writing style and make it more effective, and the challenges and opportunities for sci-fi writers to tell one of the 21^st century's most urgent stories.

Audiences also joined the festival for a workshop concert of 'Humans in the Loop', a new musical supported by the Department of Informatics, the King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence and King's Culture. The evening concluded with a panel discussion of the musical's themes. Audience members commented on the musical providing unique perspectives:

'Without seeing this musical, I would not have an understanding of the depth of different roles and emotional challenges of being part of the AI workforce.'

The festival demonstrated King's comprehensive approach to AI research and public engagement, bringing together diverse voices to examine both opportunities and challenges in AI development. Professor Elena Simperl, co-Director of the King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence, noted: 'It's encouraging to see we have representation from across the College in terms of speakers, attendees and locations.'

Watch recordings from the festival on the King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence YouTube channel. Sign up for the King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence newsletter for future events and updates about AI at King's.