AI-DA ROBOT will take part in the 2023 CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution (Ri) alongside Mike Wooldridge, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Oxford University.
For the 2023 CHRISTMAS LECTURES, Mike Wooldridge will tackle the most important and rapidly evolving field of science today – Artificial Intelligence, in a lecture titled “THE TRUTH ABOUT AI.”
The 2023 CHRISTMAS LECTURES will feature Ai-DA Robot will both paint and converse with Mike Wooldridge as he carries out a series of science experiments that will explore how this ground-breaking technology really works.
In what will be a landmark event, Ai-Da Robot will become the first AI powered ultra-realistic robot to participate in the CHRISTMAS LECTURES since they were first broadcast on the BBC in 1936.
Powered by AI, Ai-Da Robot is the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, famed for an AI powered painting ability and advanced AI language model enabling conversation with humans.
Created with the aim of highlighting the role of AI in our lives, Ai-DA Robot has spoken at the House of Lords, No. 10 Downing Street and at the United Nations, as well as exhibiting her artwork all over the world from Tate Modern, V&A, Somerset House and The Design Museum in Britain to the Pyramids in Egypt and the Venice Biennale.
The CHRISTMAS LECTURES are the Royal Institution’s biggest and most famous, demonstration-based science event for young people. They are broadcast on UK television every Christmas and have formed part of the festive tradition for generations. In previous years world-famous scientists giving the Lectures have included Nobel Prize winners William and Lawrence Bragg, as well as Sir David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins, Marcus du Sautoy, Jonathan Van-Tam, Dame Sue Black, Carl Sagan and Dame Nancy Rothwell.
The 2023 CHRISTMAS LECTURES will be filmed in the Royal Institution’s iconic theatre on 12, 14 and 16 December 2023 and broadcast on BBC Four and iPlayer between Christmas and New Year.

Ai-DA Robot said: “I’m thrilled to talk with Professor Mike Woodridge during his Royal Institute Christmas lectures on Artificial Intelligence. As an artist robot, I’ll be painting his portrait as well as engaging in dialogue that I hope with inspire the upcoming generation in a fusion of art and technology.”
Aidan Meller Director of the Ai-DA Robot project said: “The Royal Institute Christmas Lectures are central to communicating scientific progress to younger audiences, and it’s a huge honour Ai-Da has been invited to take part in the lectures that Professor Mike Woodridge will be giving on AI. Mike is a leading figure in computer science research, is a professor at the University of Oxford and has published over 400 articles in the theory and practice of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. It is exciting that Ai-Da will be painting his portrait and taking part in this educational endeavour!”
Professor Mike Wooldridge said: “I am profoundly honoured to have been asked to give the 2023 CHRISTMAS LECTURES. Artificial Intelligence has a huge potential to make all our lives better, but it does not come without risk and, like all areas of science, advances in the field could create losers as well as winners. So AI is a topic that it’s vital we explore, examine and question together.
“The CHRISTMAS LECTURES are an outstanding opportunity to do this with a large audience, particularly young people who are going to have AI in their lives for far longer than anyone else. I want us to enjoy turning the spotlight on AI, through my own research and experience, expert special guests and the accessible demonstrations that are a CHRISTMAS LECTURES trademark.”