Kevin Warwick

[14] By the age of 40, Warwick had been awarded a DSc degree by both Imperial College London and the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, for his research output in two entirely unrelated areas.

[21] Warwick directed a research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which investigated the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to suitably stimulate and translate patterns of electrical activity from living cultured neural networks to use the networks for the control of mobile robots.

[23] Gershwyn appeared on BBC's Tomorrow's World, having been successfully used to mix music for Manus, a group consisting of the four younger brothers of Elvis Costello.

It was X-rated by the University of Reading Research and Ethics Committee due to its image storage capabilities—anyone under the age of 18 who wished to interact with the robot had to obtain parental approval.

In 2007, 16 school teams were involved in a project to design a humanoid robot to dance and then complete an assault course, with the final competition staged at the Science Museum, London.

He has guested on several television talk shows, including Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Først & sist, Sunday Brunch and Richard & Judy.

"[39] In 2009, Warwick was interviewed about his work in cybernetics for two documentary features on the DVD release of the 1985 Doctor Who story Attack of the Cybermen.

[44] One robot, with an artificial neural network brain at the University of Reading in the UK, learned how to move around without bumping into things.

Hissing Sid also appeared on BBC TV's Blue Peter but became more well known when it was refused a ticket by British Airways on the grounds that they did not allow animals in the cabin.

[47] Warwick was also responsible for a robotic "magic chair" (based on the SCARA-form UMI RTX arm)[48] used on BBC TV's Jim'll Fix It.

The chair provided the show's host Jimmy Savile with tea and stored Jim'll Fix It badges for him to hand out to guests.

The magazine series guided its readers through the stages of building and programming Cybot, an artificially intelligent robot capable of making its own decisions and thinking for itself.

[51] The first stage of Project Cyborg, which began on 24 August 1998, involved a simple RFID transmitter being implanted beneath Warwick's skin, which was used to control doors, lights, heaters, and other computer-controlled devices based on his proximity.

[52] He explained that the main purpose of this experiment was to test the limits of what the body would accept, and how easy it would be to receive a meaningful signal from the microprocessor.

[53] The second stage of the research involved a more complex neural interface, designed and built especially for the experiment by Dr. Mark Gasson and his team at the University of Reading.

This device consisted of a BrainGate sensor, a silicon square about 3mm wide, connected to an external "gauntlet" that housed supporting electronics.

It was implanted under local anaesthetic on 14 March 2002 at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, where it was interfaced directly into Warwick's nervous system via the median nerve in his left wrist.

[55] In a highly publicised extension to the experiment, a simpler array was implanted into the arm of Warwick's wife, with the ultimate aim of one day creating a form of telepathy or empathy using the Internet to communicate the signal over huge distances.

[57] There was a fear that directly interfacing with the nervous system might cause some form of damage or interference, but no measurable side effect (nor any sign of rejection) was encountered.

[58] A controversy began in August 2002, shortly after the Soham murders, when Warwick reportedly offered to implant a tracking device into an 11-year-old girl as an anti-abduction measure.

Warwick regarded the winning chatbot, "Eugene Goostman", as having "passed the Turing test for the first time" by fooling a third of the event's judges into making an incorrect identification, and termed this a "milestone".

A Report on Turing Test Experiments at the Royal Society", has also become one of the top three most-downloaded papers in the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence.

[69] Warwick was criticised in the context of the 2014 Royal Society event, where he claimed that software program Eugene Goostman had passed the Turing test on the basis of its performance.

Additionally, Warwick was criticised by editor and entrepreneur Mike Masnick for exaggerating the significance of the Eugene Goostman program to the press.

He claimed that Warwick "is not a spokesman for our subject" (Artificial Intelligence) and "allowing him influence through the Christmas lectures is a danger to the public perception of science".

[78] Subsequent letters were generally positive; Ralph Rayner wrote: "With my youngest son, I attended all of the lectures and found them balanced and thought-provoking.

Warwick in February 2008
Warwick in June 2011