AI & Robotics @ Edinburgh - six decades ... and beyond Austin Tate Emeritus Professor of Knowledge-Based Systems AIAI, University of Edinburgh Abstract The talk will cover work at the University of Edinburgh over nearly six decades on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and look at some of the pioneering approaches taken to putting AI to practical use. It will also look to the future as these technologies mature and come to directly impact many aspects of our lives. Biography Austin Tate is Emeritus Professor of Knowledge-Based Systems at the University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. In the 1970s he worked with Donald Michie, a code breaker alongside Alan Turing at Bletchley Park and pioneer of Machine Intelligence in the UK, who was also coincidentally a New Club member. His own contributions to AI include planning technologies in widespread use in robots, spacecraft, emergency response and games. From 1985 to 2019 he was Director of the AIAI (Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute) at the University of Edinburgh which led it's efforts to put AI technology to productive use working closely with businesses, government agencies and engineers across the world. He formally retired in 2020 but continues to be actively engaged in work on collaborative systems in virtual worlds and virtual reality.