Image: Congratulating Dr Tommy Leung on a fact-filled, fast-paced presentation were, from left, UNE historians Teresa Van Der Krann and Dr Molly Northcott.

A record audience of 165 at Armidale’s Skeptics In The Pub on Wednesday were avid to hear a lacerating critique of Artificial Intelligence by the UNE’s Dr Tommy Leung.

The Welder’s Dog Brewery was packed to capacity, with the biggest audience ever since Skeptics In The Pub began in April 2024.

Dr Leung, who lectures in parasitology and evolutionary biology, is also Academic Integrity Investigation Officer for the School of Environmental and Rural Science.

Dr Leung explained that Large Language Model generative AIs are essentially mathematical models producing statistically plausible strings of text. This gives the illusion of intelligence and thinking, but there actually is none.  Errors are inherent, resulting in widespread misinformation and disinformation online causing some people to form unhealthy attachments leading to harmful behaviours.

Examples included people with eating disorders being encouraged to “have a little meth as a treat”; the Star Wars nerd apprehended by police after his AI “girlfriend” encouraged him to kill the Queen with a crossbow; fake photos of non-existent Indigenous artists used in government publications; and phone scams where the AI clones the voices of family and friends to sound like the real person is talking to you.

Dr Leung said Generative AIs are built on a foundation of theft, taking data without creators’ permission, compensation, or consent.

“AI is causing the death of culture and the crushing of the human spirit,” Dr Leung said.

The biggest audience ever: 165 people packed out the Welder’s Dog Brewery to hear Dr Tommy Leung’s presentation at Armidale’s Skeptics In The Pub.

It’s also an extremely powerful tool for online harassment and scams, such as the use of AI image generators to create nonconsensual nudes and explicit images of real people, including children, corresponding with loss to law enforcement to effectively track child sexual predators.

Dr Leung ave examples of how the use of AI in the workplace and other ventures undermines human labour and intellectual integrity, plus the cost to the environment.

Huge amounts of electricity and water are needed to run and to cool the processors. Just one session on Chat GPT uses the equivalent of a 250ml bottle of water.

Dr Leung concluded by condemning the current unethical economic and tech industry model and warned people to be aware how easy it is to be fooled.

“We are all vulnerable,” Dr Leung said. “If something doesn’t seem right, trust your gut. Take a moment. Ask ‘is it real?’ Don’t engage with it. Walk away.”

The Skeptics In The Pub event was the final for 2025.  It will resume in February 2026.