21 March 2023

A first whole-day Westminster Horizons Conference brought together pupils from six schools to hear expert views on how we might move from the now to the future.

Two hundred students from The Grey Coat Hospital, La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls’ School, Carshalton Boys Sports College, Forest Gate Community School and St Gabriel’s College joined Westminster pupils at the conference in March, hearing from leading global minds on the subject of ‘transition’, focusing especially on artificial intelligence, economics, politics and international relations.

The Horizons Conference was designed to build on the success of the Horizons lecture series, which has hosted speakers including Anthony Seldon and Professor Oded Galor. The idea of the day was to expose pupils to university-level research and learning and to help them access a global network of academics across a wide range of disciplines, helping them expand their academic horizons and shape their aspirations for the future. The day ended with a keynote lecture delivered by Sir Vince Cable, who reflected on the challenges in preparing for a life in professional politics and the fact that there is no longer an appropriate training ground to create the platform in the political arena. Sir Vince also reflected on the co-authoring ‘Partnership and Politics in a Divided Decade’ which explores the nature of his partnership in the political life with his wife.

 

During the daytime session, Professor Syon Bhanot of Swarthmore College, a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, spoke to his young audience on how economy models evolved from normative to descriptive models to best represent human behaviour. Also from Swarthmore College, Assistant Professor Susanne Schwarz talked on global political transitions, focusing on the USA, and touching on the history of civil rights activism and the US political parties’ struggle for power, which led her to reflect on the increased necessity in sparking change from the bottom up.

University College London’s Professor Phillip Ayuob, looked at societal transition, focusing in on why the trajectory of LGBTQ+ recognition is so varied in nations across the world, talking about gay rights in transition in Poland and noting there was a stark difference between compliance – changes to laws, and internalisation – changes at the societal level.

With artificial intelligence making the headlines in recent times, there was much interest in pupils on the subject of AI transitions, in a breakout session led by the Westminster School AI Society and the School’s teacher of physics, and religion and philosophy, Professor Kevin Walsh. Students engaged in a lively Q&A looking at the benefits and conflicts AI poses, in areas such as medical care, social care, law, finance, the military and culture. It was even questioned if the traditional role of the schoolteacher is still necessary with the rise of AI, however the students still believed in the worth of humans in completing tasks, and thought that AI’s future and its success would rely on the quality of human input.

AI Society member and one of the breakout leaders, Aryan (Remove, HH) said “The Horizons Conference was a brilliant opportunity to engage with some important debates about how our world is changing. It was wonderful to have some mature and thoughtful discussions on the subject of artificial intelligence, on everything from whether AI can be truly creative to whether it should be used in the judicial system.”

Also, presenting in the breakout, Maxwell (Upper Shell, LL) said “AI is becoming more and more prevalent in our lives and it’s important that people should know the extent of its ability and impact on the future.”

Serene (Remove, PP) added: “Our presentations focused on the transition into the era of AI and the need to adapt proactively in order to lead the development process rather than passively responding to changes. The students’ perspectives on this topic were particularly intriguing and made for a fulfilling discussion.”

Attending the day-long series of lectures, Evan (Lower Shell, CC) said: “The Horizons Conference, spanning a variety of different socioeconomic and political transitions which our world faces, was a fascinating experience and taught me many trends and reasons behind why the modern world functions the way it does. Since international and political events in current times have been very perplexing to say the least, this conference truly opened up a riveting web of rationales behind them.”

Mikhail (Lower Shell, PP) said: “I really liked learning about the different ways that topics intertwine and connect with earth other. The presence of other schools and the social aspect of the day made it even more enjoyable for me.”

Felix (Lower Shell, LL) added: “The Horizons day was a unique experience that made me think a lot about all the ideas presented by the speakers, and their transcendent relevance over disciplines and eras. I would love to see another set of diverse talks on economics, science, politics and history in the future.”



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