Oxford Mathematics Public Lecture - 5pm, Wednesday 26 June 2024
Between 1905 and 1910 the idea of the random walk was invented simultaneously and independently by people in multiple countries for completely different purposes – in the UK, with Ronald Ross and the problem of mosquito control, but elsewhere in domains from physics to finance to winning a theological argument (really!).
Jordan will tell this story and also gesture at ways that random walks (or Markov processes, named after the theological arguer) underlie approaches to AI; he will also touch on his work with DeepMind and speculate about the capabilities of those systems now and in the future.
Jordan Ellenberg is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Please email @email to register to attend in person.
The lecture will be broadcast on the Oxford Mathematics YouTube Channel on Thursday 18 July at 5-6pm and any time after (no need to register for the online version). The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.
