The implications of AI for global security are frequently discussed. This talk will focus on a related but less thoroughly examined subject: the role machine learning could play in revolutionising the study of international affairs. By enabling sophisticated analysis of messy, high-dimensional, real-world data, such techniques could bring new predictive modeling abilities to the social sciences and, by extension, the practice of governance, potentially unlocking new forms of institutional design.

Tantum Collins works on special research and strategy projects for DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. He graduated from Yale, where he studied global affairs, before co-authoring the New York Times bestselling book Team of Teams with four-star US General Stanley McChrystal. The book examined the organisational design and management theory underlying the transformation of Joint Special Operations Control (JSOC) that McChrystal oversaw during the fight against Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He then won a Marshall Scholarship to pursue graduate education in the UK, which he used to study international relations at Cambridge and philosophy at LSE.

All are welcome. Lunch will be provided at 12.15pm.