Alan Turing’s legacy: computers, AI and some very queer mathematics: National Science Week public lecture by Benjamin Burton.
Friday 21 August 2026
We were delighted to welcome Benjamin Burton and MC Alice Motion to present our annual public lecture: Alan Turing’s legacy: Computers, AI and some very queer mathematics to mark National Science Week 2026.
Professor Burton examined the vast impact that his mathematical hero – Alan Turing – had on science well beyond his lifetime: including the invention of the Turing machine, which laid the foundations for modern computers, and his work on the basic ideas around neural-network computing and machine learning that foresaw artificial intelligence – including large language models like Chat GPT – as far back as the 1950s.
The lecture also acknowledged Turing’s incredible work leading the team that successfully broke the codes of the German military’s Enigma Machine ciphers – an effort that is estimated to have taken two years off the duration of World War II. It also recognised his enduring legacy as a role model to many LGBTQ+ scientists.
Catch up on the lecture via our video.
