Join us at 2pm on June 25th at the Thompson Yates Lecture Theatre, University of Liverpool, for an engaging event that will explore transformative applications of AI across a range of domains! The workshop will also be streamed on our YouTube channel, here.
Our speakers for this event will be discussing applications of large language models in medical research and finance, and the application of AI towards human-like behaviour in robotics.
2.00 - 2.05 Welcome/Chair's introduction
2.05 - 2.40 Prof. Grazziela Figueredo (Associate Professor, University of Nottingham) –
TBA (LLMs in health data science/medicine)
2.40 - 3.15 Dr. Eghbal Rahimikia
(Assistant Professor, University of Manchester) –
"Re(Visiting) Large Language Models in Finance"
3.15 - 3.20 Refreshment break
3.20 - 3.55 Ms Xinyi Wang (PhD student, University of Nottingham) –
TBA (LLMs in health data science/medicine)
3.55 - 4.30 Dr Anh Nguyen (Senior Lecturer, University of Liverpool) – "
Physical Intelligence"
4.30 - 4.35 Close
Grazielle Figueredo (Associate Professor, Health Data Science,and School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham)
Eghbal Rahimikia (Assistant Professor, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester)
"Re(Visiting) Large Language Models in Finance"
This study evaluates the effectiveness of specialised large language models (LLMs) developed for accounting and finance. Empirical analysis demonstrates that these domain-specific models, despite being nearly 50 times smaller, consistently outperform state-of-the-art general-purpose LLMs in return prediction. By pre-training the models on year-specific financial datasets from 2007 to 2023, the study also mitigates look-ahead bias, a common limitation of general-purpose LLMs. The findings highlight the critical importance of addressing look-ahead bias to ensure reliable results. Extensive robustness checks further validate the superior performance of these models.
Xinyi Wang (PhD Student, Health Data Science,and School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham)
Anh Nguyen (Senior Lecturer, University of Liverpool)
"Physical Intelligence"
As artificial intelligence continues to advance, a critical frontier emerges at the intersection of cognition and physical embodiment - physical intelligence. This talk explores how recent breakthroughs in large language models (LLMs) and generative AI are transforming our understanding and implementation of intelligence in the physical world. By linking symbolic reasoning, learned representations, and motor control, we can begin to endow robots with the capacity to perceive, reason, and act adaptively in complex, dynamic environments. Drawing from interdisciplinary insights across machine learning, control theory, and cognitive science, the talk presents a vision for the next generation of AI-driven robots - systems that are not only computationally intelligent but physically agile, resilient, and context-aware. I will showcase examples where LLMs are used to interpret natural language commands, plan complex tasks, and even guide low-level control in robotic systems, illustrating the emergence of embodied, explainable, and generalizable AI. The talk concludes with key challenges and opportunities in building truly intelligent physical agents that can operate robustly in real-world scenarios.
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