AI@Southampton Festival 2025
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From 16 to 25 June 2025, the AI@Southampton Festival 2025 saw 22 events and over 50 contributors come together to take part in workshops, lectures, seminars, a games night and a film screening, all showcasing the range and depth of AI excellence at the University of Southampton.
From 16 to 25 June 2025, the AI@Southampton Festival 2025 saw 22 events and over 50 contributors come together to take part in workshops, lectures, seminars, a games night and a film screening, all showcasing the range and depth of AI excellence at the University of Southampton.
The 10-day festival culminated in a launch event led by Professor Dame Wendy Hall and Professor Sarvapali (Gopal) Ramchurn , who officially unveiled the AI@Southampton initiative, which aims to further the University’s growing excellence in AI research.
A thought-provoking panel with Southampton academics tackled key questions about the future of AI and the importance of interdisciplinarity in AI research and development.
Showcased at the launch event was an AI-themed stand-up set performed by PhD student and comedian Will Hunt. Titled 'Seeking Partner for Fun, Friendship, and the Robot Apocalypse', the routine covered Will’s attempts to survive AI Armageddon, as well as the much more challenging task of finding a girlfriend.
An alumnus of MEng Computer Science at Southampton, Will joined the MINDS CDT to do a second Masters year followed by a PhD. Whilst there, he found his love for comedy and joined the Southampton Science Comedy group, led by Professor Les Carr.
“I really enjoy the adrenaline of standing up in front of everyone and honestly, it’s just great to make people laugh. It has also inoculated me against nerves when giving any other kind of talk or presentation and lets me add jokes and humour into essentially everything I do professionally.” - Will Hunt
Other festival events included the role of AI in startups. Alex Dunlop, Studio Manager at Future Worlds , organised a ‘fireside chat’ with a startup co-founder from the University, Sam Munday of Data Revival , and Finlay Morrison, his first hire and fellow alumnus of Southampton.
The session provided a deep dive into Data Revival’s use of AI to make archived data sources accessible and searchable. It also gave attendees the opportunity to ask any questions they wanted about being a startup founder, working for a startup, or the future of Artificial Intelligence.
Data Revival is one of over 60 startup businesses that are supported by Future Worlds. Their involvement in the AI festival offered aspiring founders an honest insight into the evolving and dynamic technology industry, and the on-campus initiative aims to build on its successes with the launch of AIR26 - its AI focused accelerator programme.
