Page 6 - Demo

6 Phonebox Magazine | April 2025Olney and Newport Pagnell residents can get a discount on tickets to a new and interesting exhibition in Bletchley which is asking big questions. Phonebox Magazine%u2019s Tom Johnston went for a look.The centrepiece of the new Age of AI exhibition, which is housed in a special gallery in the Bletchley Park %u2018Codebreakers%u2019 heritage site, is a pyramid-style display explaining AI, its uses and its potential drawbacks. It has a small number of information cards at the top of the display and cascades down into more and more information. There%u2019s a reason for this introduction.%u201cWe have diff erent audiences coming in, so we will have people who are already familiar with what AI is, and there will be people who won%u2019t be as knowledgeable,%u201d says exhibition manager Tilly Davis.%u201cSo we wanted to start with that introduction so everyone can come in on the same page. And one of the things we were looking at was defi nitions of artifi cial intelligence.%u201dOn a wall are five definitions lined up for easy reading and understanding. The fi rst of them is the fi rst-ever defi nition of AI from 1955 when it was talked about at a research conference in Dartmouth. There are several other explanations and even a defi nition from Google%u2019s Gemini stating %u2018what AI thinks AI is%u2019.The exhibition is going to be running for at least two years, and Tilly is anxious to ensure that it can be updated if necessary, due to the speed that AI is developing and changing.%u201cWe must update where we need to and keep everything relevant,%u201d says Tilly. %u201cAnd it%u2019s been quite fun to think about that, and a challenge too. One of the signs we have is the timeline, where we can swap out diff erent panels and add others in along the bottom. Our latest one is 2024, but there are already a couple of things I have in mind which we might be adding to that.%u201dBletchley Park was chosen as the site for the fi rst %u2018AI Safety Summit%u2019 two years ago, in which global co-operation around AI was discussed, so it%u2019s fi tting that this new exhibition has found its way to Milton Keynes. Bletchley Park was chosen because of its war links and the recognition that it was one of the birthplaces of computing. The British Government has been involved too, funding much of the display. The exhibition is balanced in that it shows the opportunities that AI can bring, but also the risks. Some people are still nervous about AI, but the expo is educational in that it gives both sides of the AI story.%u201cIt was really important for us to give a very balanced view,%u201d says Tilly. %u201cWe%u2019re not coming in here with an agenda, we%u2019re not trying to make people love AI or be terrifi ed of it. We just want our visitors to come in and fi nd out more, and then make up their own mind.%u201dA lot has been squeezed into one room for this interesting exhibition, and the designers have done well to keep the displays bright and interesting %u2013 there%u2019s no %u2018stuff y science%u2019 feeling about this presentation.%u201cIt was an early conversation we had with the designers as we were looking at all these dark colours and coding language, but we wanted it to be a bit diff erent,%u201d explains Tilly. %u201cIt%u2019s aimed at teenagers and their parents, that%u2019s the primary audience, so we wanted something bright, to be engaging, and something that catches the eye, and things that were relevant to people%u2019s lives.%u201cWe want a regular person to come in and think %u2018I can see how that could aff ect my life today%u2019 or consider how they might use it in the future, making it a bit more relatable to people.%u201dThe Age of AI is at Bletchley Park until 2027. There is a 50% discount for people who live in Olney, which makes it %u00a312.75 for an adult ticket, %u00a311.50 for concessions and %u00a38.50 for children aged 12 to 17. Children under 12 are free.For more details, visit: https://bletchleypark.org.uk/plan-avisit/#50-off -for-local-residents. Tickets are annual passes and last for a year. TheAge of AI