Sessions | Absolutely Interdisciplinary

Keynote: Blaise Agüera y Arcas 

June 21, 2023 | 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM | In person and online

Blaise Agüera y Arcas is a VP and Fellow at Google Research who has been an active participant in cross-disciplinary dialogues about AI and ethics, fairness and bias, policy, and risk.

With the recent release of the latest generation of large language models, it feels like the ground has shifted under our feet. What can interacting with these systems teach us about the nature of “intelligence”? In his keynote lecture, Agüera y Arcas will discuss AI and cognition as they relate to questions of norms, valuation, and sociality.

Testing social cognitive theory with AI

June 21, 2023 | 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM | In person and online

Speakers: William Cunningham, Joel Leibo, Nicolas Papernot (moderator)

Social cognitive theory posits that learning takes place in a social context in which there is interaction and co-constitution between agents, their behaviours, and their environment. In this session, we will explore how multi-agent reinforcement learning (RL) can be used to examine this theory. RL models can formally test social cognitive dynamics by simulating agents and modelling behaviours that can help us better understand how social processes emerge, revealing implications for aligning AI with human values.

Value alignment?

June 21, 2023 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM | In person and online

Speakers: Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Gillian Hadfield (moderator), Richard Sutton

AI systems are increasingly being used for decisions that have significant consequences. Ensuring these systems align with human values can prevent unintended negative outcomes, ensure ethical decision-making, and help to build trust and accountability. Should AIs be forever aligned with human values? Will AIs always be treated as tools or sometimes as citizens? Do we trust our societies and civilizations—and AI—to evolve without centralized control?

Large language models

June 21, 2023 | 3:15 PM – 5:15 PM | In person and online

Speakers: Ashton Anderson (moderator), Lauren Bialystok, Paolo Granata, Ceceilia Parnther

Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) are transforming the way we communicate with each other and interact with information. Educators, in particular, from the primary to the postsecondary level, are now presented with critical new opportunities and challenges. How will LLMs be used as a tool, whether for teaching or “cheating”? How has this dynamic played out in the history of technology (e.g. calculators, computers)? This session will feature a mix of researchers and practitioners debating the merits and hazards of LLMs in the classroom.

The reward hypothesis

June 22, 2023 | 9:05 AM – 11:00 AM | In person and online

Speakers: Julia Haas, Gillian Hadfield (moderator), Richard Sutton

Almost 20 years ago, AI research pioneer Richard Sutton posited the reward hypothesis: “That all of what we mean by goals and purposes can be well thought of as maximization of the expected value of the cumulative sum of a received scalar signal (reward).” Since then, advances in reinforcement learning have demonstrated that complex behaviours can emerge from artificial agents guided by scalar reward. Humanists and social scientists are starting to see the utility of the hypothesis as a claim about humans, although many disagree. The question remains, is the reward hypothesis of reinforcement learning a good model for understanding human behaviour and values? How far can it go? Can it guide normative decision-making for individuals and groups? For societies?

Machine learning in the workplace

June 22, 2023 | 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM | In person and online

Speakers: Avi Goldfarb (moderator), Daniel Rock, Frank Rudzicz

How will recent advances in AI change the nature of work? This session will feature a discussion between economist Daniel Rock and computer scientist Frank Rudzicz. Rudzicz will discuss his experience implementing ML tools into hospital workflows, while Rock highlights his work on how generative AI tools are likely to impact jobs. 

AI and creativity

June 22, 2023 | 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM | In person and online

Speakers: Polly Denny, N. Katherine Hayles, Avery Slater (moderator)

How can we re-conceptualize creativity, whether human or non-human, in light of the latest advances in AI and our interactions with it? How do new technologies impact our conceptions of self, language, expression, and art? Incorporating tools and insights from science and technology studies, literary criticism, and creative practice, this session will turn a humanities lens on the crucial sociotechnical problems of the current moment. 

Sessions | The Limits of AI

We hear so much about what artificial intelligence (AI) can do, but what about what AI cannot do? What can AI not do today, and what may it not ever be able to do?

The 2022–23 Schwartz Reisman Graduate Fellows present a special one-day workshop that will explore the limitations of AI through interdisciplinary perspectives. How can a framing of constraints and limitations guide us to reassess the role of algorithms and their application in different contexts? How can this framing be a useful heuristic device to engage more ethical and responsible design?

This special event consists of a morning and afternoon session. In the invitation-only morning session, a series of small group discussions concerning key themes will cultivate ideas for our afternoon panel discussions. In our first afternoon panel, we will ask how AI’s capabilities may never surprise us. In what ways will AI never evolve in a human direction? Considering this, our second conversation will then ask: in what particular domains might we want to limit AI? If so, how? Through our discussion of what AI might never be able to do, we will interrogate what characteristics and capacities we consider to be uniquely human.

SRI Graduate Workshop

June 20, 2023 | 10:05 AM – 11:50 AM | In-person (closed session)

Moderated by Mohammad Rashidujjaman Rifat

SRI graduate fellows and affiliates will be paired with mentors to discuss their professional journey. This is a closed session for invited guests only.

Roundtable #1: How might AI surprise us? How might it never surprise us?

June 20, 2023 | 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM | In-person

Speakers: Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Reem Ayad (moderator), Cendri Hutcherson

The current era has brought forth so many unforeseen events. How might AI help us navigate these unforeseen events–ones we may not yet understand? How might AI surprise us in anticipating these unforeseen events, a function we’ve only entrusted to humans until now? What sort of model would allow AI to explore the future in the same way it can explore the past in areas like economics, politics, climate, and pandemics? This session is free and open to the public.

Roundtable #2: Do we want to limit AI? 

June 20, 2023 | 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM | In-person

Speakers: Nicolas Papernot, Ganaele Langlois, Jennifer Raso, Yuxing Zhang (moderator)

Scholars and practitioners are increasingly recognizing the potential harms that may arise from the widespread use of large language models. Recent advances in LLMs have led to the use and development of AI technologies whose long-term impacts are yet to be fully understood. In order to act more responsibly and mitigate potential risks, might it be necessary to limit the rapid advancement of AI technologies until we have a clearer understanding of how to effectively manage its risks? How can we adopt an interdisciplinary methodological approach and a more inclusive design framework when developing AI technologies? How should we evaluate the effectiveness of existing AI regulations, and what are their limits?