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Professor Bill Buchanan
In the Augustine United Church
41 George IV Bridge
Edinburgh,
EH1 1EL
On Monday 26th January 2026, at 7pm
In just a few years, our digital world has completely changed with the rise of GenAI, and especially in the usage of Large Language Models (LLMs). While the methods used are powerful in recalling information, there are many weaknesses in the underlying methods that will limit the scope of GenAI, and also limit the move towards true AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). Whilst GenAI is increasingly used to defend against cyber attackers, will we see the rise of fairly unskilled attackers using GenAI? And, finally, the presentation will aim to address questions about how we test and constrain our AI-based agents to prevent them from harming our world, and on the possibility of GenAI taking over from humans on our planet as the dominant species. Along the way, we will see many examples of the strengths and weaknesses of GenAI.
William (Bill) J Buchanan OBE FRSE is a Professor of Applied Cryptography in the School of Computing, Edinburgh and the Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University. He is a Fellow of the BCS and a Principal Fellow of the HEA. Bill was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to cybersecurity, and, in 2024, he was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE). In 2023, he received the "Most Innovative Teacher of the Year" award at the Times Higher Education Awards 2023 (the "Oscars of Higher Education"), and was awarded "Cyber Evangelist of the Year" at the Scottish Cyber Awards in 2016 and 2025. Along with this, he has won the Best Lecturer/Tutor for Computing at the Student-voted Excellence Awards six times (2011, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2020 and 2023). Bill lives and works in Edinburgh and is a believer in fairness, justice, and freedom. His social media tagline reflects his strong belief in changing the world for the better: "A Serial Innovator. An Old World Breaker. A New World".
Bill has a strong belief in the power of education and in supporting innovation from every angle and currently leads the Blockpass ID Lab and the Centre for Cybersecurity, IoT and Cyberphysical, and the Director of the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Digital Trust and DLT. Bill works in the areas of cryptography, blockchain, trust, digital identity and quantum processing. He has one of the most extensive cryptography sites in the World (asecuritysite.com), and is involved in many areas of novel research and teaching. He has published over 30 academic books and over 450 academic research papers. Along with this, Bill's work has led to many areas of impact, including a number of highly successful spin-out companies (including Zonefox, Symphonic Software, Cyan Forensics and MemCrypt), along with awards for excellence in knowledge transfer and for teaching. He recently received an "Outstanding Contribution to Knowledge Exchange" award and was included in the FutureScot "50 Scottish Tech People Who Are Changing The World", along with being a regular keynote speaker at a range of conferences. Bill's true academic passion is building, analysing and breaking cryptographic methods.
If you do not wish to attend the lecture in person, it will also be simultaneously available by Zoom. Fellows on our mailing list will be sent details about a week before the meeting. Anyone else should email zoom@rssa.org.uk if they want to attend this event online.
Complimentary tea, coffee and biscuits are served from about 6:40pm onwards before the meetings. Members of the Public are welcome to attend.
Mr Peter Jones, Secretary
secretary@rssa.org.uk
Telephone: 0131 622 0428