Artificial Intelligence (AI) Faraday Lecture: This is not the AI we were promised (Excellent Explanation of LLMs/Gen AI)

See below to the (now working) link:

https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2026/02/faraday-prize-lecture/

Follow on You Tube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glWvwvhZkQ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcv0600V5q4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDL3Ch7Nz8c

Wargames that Teach Leadership - Extraordinary college

A friend pointed me to this interesting site (see below, it immediately caught my attention with the novel use of egg timers next to the counter bases):  

I suggest you take a look yourself (see link below): 

https://www.extraordinary.college/tin-soldiers-iron-wills/

The scenarios looked appealing:

• The Battle of Luethen
• A Special Forces "smash and grab" from a train behind enemy lines
• A successful Viking raid is confronted with a Saxon Shieldwall between it and its longship home
• A Three Musketeers "look out for your friends" escapade

Interesting, although I cannot afford the price of the games in their commercial "training" use!

Footnote: I did meet "the timers" game in action at Partisan 2026. Chatting to the guy who organised it and he said he was in touch with the designer. Fairly simple game, use a unit and wait until the timer stops before you can use it next while the battle swirls around you! Quick wins can turn out to be long term losses. 

 

Note to Self: Have you played a game of Uno yet, if not why not?

With plenty of time coming to hand, time to challenge the old and young kids alike for a game of Uno (see below, a deviously simple but addictive little game): 

Note to Self: Remember not to cry when the kids beat you!

Inspirational Books

I was asked to give a lecture at my old Alma Mater to some undergraduates to encourage them to consider doing an industrial placement year (rather than race through their degrees as quickly as possible - but that temptation is understandable in the current climate of student debt), to also pick up PRINCE 2 Project Management skills and learn (or rather practise) an Agile/SCRUM approach to product development. At the end of this by way of a light relief I offered them a reading list of work related books that changed the way I think. So here goes (see below - related specifically to the talk's content):

• Covey's - "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"
• Sutherland's - "SCRUM: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time"
• PRINCE2 Manual

This book (and the YouTube video of the lecture) is inspirational (see below, my personal battered copy):

You simply have to listen to someone has been an Astronaut and wants to teach you some lessons on perspective as in what is important and if it is important "how to sweat it like an astronaut" (see below):

This is a classic - not a light read but at the same time not that heavy given the importance of understanding "Black Swans" (see below, a key take away is that sometimes scrutinising every piece of information to the [n]th degree becomes counter productive, there is the powerful notion of "good enough"):

I cannot get away from Axelrod and "Tit-for-Tat" - it is such a powerful concept and proof that when you mix a Political Scientist with a Computer Scientist you get something novel and interesting (see below, his classic book and its lesser known follow on):

Lastly a general readers introduction to the Game Theory classic of the Prisoner's Dilemma (see below, and along the way Poundstone opens up some interesting nooks and crannies): 

There are more but these would keep me busy for a while on my desert island until a rescue ship came by!