How can a machine learn to distinguish a picture of a cat from a picture of a dog?

Artificial intelligence and machines that train themselves might sound like a plot from a science fiction movie, but these things are already part of our everyday lives.

At the Heidelberg Laureate Forum last year, Chris Budd, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Bath, talked us through the basics of how these learning machines tick.

While Raj Reddy, Turing Award winner and artificial intelligence pioneer, talked to us about his grand challenges in artificial intelligence, and why time travel and immortality might be easier to achieve than creating a machine that rivals human intelligence.

To find out more about machine learning, its history, and some of the moral questions it raises, read the series of articles based on Chris' Gresham College lectures. And you can read all our coverage from the Heidelberg Laureate Forum.

The music in this podcast is from Oli Freke, and the track is called "Experimental 5". You can find his music at soundcloud.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking the download link below, and you can subscribe to our podcast feed in your podcast aggregator of choice, or directly through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

This podcast was partially funded by the European Mathematical Society.