Connecting for a Digital Future

 Alleyn’s alumni, parents and students gathered to explore the impacts, challenges and opportunities of some of the latest advances in technology. 

The Always Alleyn’s networking event brought together people from the worlds of tech and AI at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) London Customer Innovation Centre. As well as having the chance to connect with others in this field, including our HPE partners, guests had the opportunity to interact with in-person and virtual demonstrations designed to inspire innovation, from a digital human assistant (an avatar of HPE’s CEO Antonio Neri – or in this case, Antonio Nearly) to a Mercedes F1 race simulator and a Carnegie clean energy buoy generating electricity from waves. 

A special highlight of the evening was a captivating panel discussion entitled Digital Futures and AI: Exploring the opportunities and challenges for education and society (traversing AI hopes, risks, romantic poetry, annihilation and love!), featuring a panel of experts including: 

• Jonathan Godwin (Roper’s 2008): CEO of Orbital Materials  

• Chris Wigley: Co-Founder & CEO of Aneira Health. Chris was also Founder & CEO of Genomics England 

• Zoe Stern: Google Head of Community Affairs Europe (& London Lead) 

• Matt Armstrong-Barnes: UK&I Middle East and Africa CTO – AI & Data at HP Enterprise 

The panel examined the challenges of AI regulation and the practicality of its implementation, how best to prepare younger generations for the future through AI in education, and a salient debate on the potential of AI for good versus destruction. 

The discussion was chaired by Head, Jane Lunnon. She began by highlighting our excitement at Alleyn’s to be delighting in and wrestling with the possibilities of AI and how our journey with tech is rapidly growing – from the development of our AiQ curriculum shaped to teach pupils to bring design and digital skills together to use tech for good, to our partnership with HPE, to the opening of All Studios – a brand-new hub for innovation and creativity where pupils can collaborate, try things out and develop skills in this area.   

There was healthy debate between panel members about the risks and possibilities of AI. Matt declared himself an optimist with enthusiasm for tech and AI improving life and education, whilst Jonathan cautioned that we should embrace progress but not without due consideration of the possible downsides. 

Zoe Stern described the biggest AI-related threat as not getting involved. She also spotlighted that education is key to ensure the next generation can do good things with it. 

She gave a wonderful example of the trends seen in the use of Google Translate, which found that the three most used phrases of the billions used every month across the world are – How are you? Thank you and I love you.  She said:

“Tech enables us to be more human - that’s what I hold onto.” 

A self-described optimist, Chris Wigley, reminded us that “human progress is lumpy and chaotic and mad” and that the potential to use technology for destruction is nothing new but that humans have consistently found useful and good things to do with it. 

When it came to education, Chris exclaimed:

“AI is the best thing to happen for education since the wax tablet”.

He described the transformation for teaching from a scarce resource with only so many teachers and classrooms, to the opportunity for everyone to learn things more quickly and in a tailored way, posing the question,

“Shouldn’t every kid have their own personal coach who is infinitely patient, infinitely kind, and knowledgeable about every single subject? It’s like having de Vinci, Aristotle and Einstein as personal tutors – that’s the world we live in now.” 

The discussion was followed by a Q&A in which the audience asked insightful questions – from the skills needed for the current and future workplace (creativity, curiosity and critical thinking stand the test, according to Zoe). Jonathan Godwin highlighted the importance of intrinsic curiosity and motivation to teach yourself and continuously adapt and develop new knowledge and skills, particularly at a time of dramatic and constant change, when it might be that the thing you need to know is so new that there might not be a training course for it.  Matt doubled down on this, emphasising the benefits and indeed necessity of lifelong learning. 

Other questions probed the panel on the possible pitfalls of AI and an exploration of AI and empathy. “Can it be said,” asked one audience member “that AI has the same interpersonal skills and empathy as humans?” Arguably, yes, explained Chris Wigley, who talked about the clinical trial that found AIs consistently rated higher than doctors.  

After a lively debate, lots of deep thinking and an impressive exchange of poetic quotations, the panel concluded with a consensus on the enduring importance of human values helping to shape and refine the application of AI and other technological products. Guests then resumed their networking with conversations continuing to flow.

Thank you to everyone who attended for a brilliant evening of connection and insight into a hugely exciting area of change and a special thank you to HP Enterprises for hosting the evening. 

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