EVENING MEETING

Tue, Apr 14th 2026 at 7:15 pm - 8:45 pm

VENUE: JAYDEES, HAYDOCK
SPEAKER: JAMES ERTIL - Artificial Intelligence; where we are now and where we are going.
GUEST SPEAKER BY ZOOM FROM THE US
Zoom link can be obtained from Secretary.
FELLOWSHIP STEWARDS: ALAN POMFRET, ALAN ROBINSON
No buffet. £


 

Last night we had the pleasure of welcoming James Ertil all the way from the US (via Zoom) to talk about:Artificial Intelligence – where we are now and where we are going.

And what a session it was.

We spent time unpacking the real story of AI… not just the headlines, but the journey. From early computing concepts through to today’s Large Language Models, it really put into perspective just how quickly things have accelerated in recent years.

One of the standout moments was exploring the shift in computing itself. Moving away from traditional electron-based processing to quantum states opens the door to exponential increases in processing power. It’s the kind of leap that doesn’t just improve what we can do… it changes what’s possible altogether.

A few takeaways that stuck with us:

AI hasn’t suddenly appeared… it’s been decades in the making

LLMs are a major inflection point, but they’re just one piece of the puzzle

Quantum computing could redefine the limits of computation entirely

The future isn’t just faster… it’s fundamentally different

A huge thank you to James for giving up his time and sharing such a thought-provoking session with us. Plenty of ideas to chew on and no doubt a few conversations still continuing today.

Curious to hear from others… what excites you most (or concerns you most) about where AI is heading?

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