Tech Events at Cross Street Chapel, Manchester

The Manchester Statistical Society hosts Daniel Dresner, Professor of Cyber Security at the University of Manchester, at Cross Street Chapel. Dresner's argument, delivered with more literary reference than most security talks manage, is that humanity's response to new technology swings between banning everything and pressing the button to see what happens, and that there is very little genuinely new under the sun. Technology, on this reading, is mostly a matter of speed. He is sceptical of AI's comparative adjectives, preferring to call it alleged intelligence, and traces how the field ended up detached from the body of practice that should ground it. Two hours in one of the city's oldest learned societies. Why go: a security professor being properly rude about AI hype, in front of an audience of statisticians who will push back. Best for anyone tired of credulous AI talks.

The Manchester Statistical Society — founded 1833 — hosts Mike Irving on running AI models locally rather than in someone else's cloud, and what that changes for cost and privacy.

with Phil Whittaker (Staff Engineer, AI, Umbraco)

AI has left many developers caught between excitement and existential dread — one minute the most empowering technology we've ever seen, the next a threat to make hard-won expertise obsolete. In this honest and personal talk, Phil Whittaker (Staff Engineer, AI at Umbraco and co-founder of Practically AI) shares his journey from panic to a more balanced perspective on what AI means for our work, our identity and our future. A story about adaptation, agency, and why the human parts of our jobs may matter more than ever. Hosted by the Manchester Statistical Society at Cross Street Chapel.

The Manchester Statistical Society — one of the oldest statistical societies in the world — hosts a talk separating AI-augmentation hype from the patterns that are actually moving numbers inside UK businesses. Grounded, evidence-led, and deliberately short on vendor pitch.