Why the honey bee is smarter than ChatGPT
Host: Professor Andrew Barron
Tuesday 18 August 2026, 6.15pm – 7.30pm
Venue TBC, Macquarie University
Overview
How smart is the honey bee really? This lecture considers the biological marvel that is the honey bee brain, and the bee mind it supports.
Bees’ brains incorporate rapid feedback on their actions, and can quickly learn different types of art, recognise abstract concepts and learn to navigate for kilometres around their hives. I argue the honey bee is significantly smarter than ChatGPT and surpasses the best that contemporary AI has to offer. I discuss what lessons AI and robotics developers could learn from consideration of the humble bee.
Biography
Professor Andrew Barron is Director of The Macquarie University Minds and Intelligences Research Centre. Andrew completed his PhD in Zoology at The University of Cambridge in 1999.
His lab at Macquarie University studies honey bee neurobiology, specialising on understanding the incredible intelligence of bees and how sophisticated social behaviour is possible with such a tiny brain.
His research is currently supported by awards from The Ian and Shirley Norman Foundation, The Australian Research Council, Horticulture Innovation and The Templeton World Charity Foundation.
He has held fellowships from the Australian Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, The Fulbright Commission and The Royal Society of London.
Pre-event short talk with Paula Dawson
Prior to the August Discover Lecture, guests are invited to attend a special pre-event experience at the Jim Piper Centre from 5pm. The session will feature an informal artist talk by Paula Dawson, To Absent Friends, along with light refreshments, a meet and greet opportunity, and access to the immersive hologram room experience before proceeding to the Discover Lecture by Professor Andrew Barron which will commence at 6.15pm. To Absent Friends
Host: Dr Paula Dawson
Tuesday 18 August 2026, 5pm – 6.15pm
Jim Piper Centre, 12 Wally's Walk, Macquarie University
Overview
To Absent Friends (1989) is a complex holographic artwork that recreates a bar room over the course of a single New Year’s Eve.The talk will explore the conceptual underpinning of To Absent Friends, including ideas of subjective memory, presence and absence. It will also outline the process of its making, which included building a bar room, a staged social event, photography, and optical holography.
The talk shows how a series of large-scale holograms capturing different moments—before, during, and after the New Year’s celebration—invites reflection on what remains when people are no longer there, and how we reconstruct events from traces.
Biography
Dr Paula Dawson AM is an artist and academic whose practice spans five decades, with a sustained focus on holography as a primary medium. Paula’s art practice has investigated complex temporality, perception, and the phenomenological presence of the beholder across an extensive exhibition history, including solo exhibitions and international group shows. Her work is held in the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery and has received Australian Research Council funding.
She was awarded an Australian Artist Creative Fellowship by the Prime Minister, shared the Grand Prix, ARTEC First International High-Tech Art Biennale, Nagoya, Japan and was a Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT.
Contact Us
For more details about the series, contact us at fse.outreach@mq.edu.au.
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