What do we Need to Do to Align AI? – Stuart Armstrong
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What do we Need to Do to Align AI? – Stuart Armstrong

Synopsis: The goal of Aligned AI is to implement scalable solutions to the alignment problem, and distribute these solutions to actors developing powerful transformative artificial intelligence. What is Alignment? Algorithms are shaping the present and will shape the future ever more strongly. It is crucially important that these powerful algorithms be aligned – that they…

Agency in an Age of Machines – Joscha Bach
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Agency in an Age of Machines – Joscha Bach

This talk is part of the ‘Stepping Into the Future‘ conference. Synopsis: The arrival of homo sapiens on Earth amounted to a singularity for its ecosystems, a transition that dramatically changed the distribution and interaction of living species within a relatively short amount of time. Such transitions are not unprecedented during the evolution of life,…

Causal Incentives and Safe AGI – Tom Everitt
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Causal Incentives and Safe AGI – Tom Everitt

This talk is part of the ‘Stepping Into the Future‘ conference. Synopsis: Along with many benefits of powerful machine learning methods comes significant challenges. For example, as content recommendation algorithms become increasingly competent at satisfying user preferences, they may also become more competent at manipulating human preferences, to make the preferences more easily satisfiable. These kinds of alignment…

Foresight Superpowers – an interview with John Smart
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Foresight Superpowers – an interview with John Smart

Anticipating, Creating, & Leading the Accelerating Future John Smart gave an outline of topics in his new book ‘Introduction to Foresight: Personal, Team, and Organizational Adaptiveness‘. John will also speak at the up and coming conference ‘Stepping into the Future‘ – this talk will be ‘The Goodness of the Universe: Outer Space, Inner Space, and…

Automation and the Future of Work with James Hughes (Executive Director, IEET)
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Automation and the Future of Work with James Hughes (Executive Director, IEET)

The pandemic has launched a debate about the future of work around the world. Those who can work remotely have often found they prefer remote or flexible, hybrid options. The Great Resignation has put upward pressure on wages and benefits in the service sector, encouraging the implementation of automation. Climate change mitigation is encouraging a…

Engineering Paradise – a panel w/ David Pearce, Mike Johnson & Andrés Gómez Emilsson
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Engineering Paradise – a panel w/ David Pearce, Mike Johnson & Andrés Gómez Emilsson

This panel is part of the ‘Stepping Into the Future‘ conference. What is the most wonderful experience you have had in your life? Now imagine if every moment in your life could be as good as this experience, or even better. Other things being equal, wouldn’t it be nice if we had higher quality lives?…

Open-Ended vs. Closed-Minded Conceptions of Superintelligence
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Open-Ended vs. Closed-Minded Conceptions of Superintelligence

This talk is part of the ‘Stepping Into the Future‘ conference. Abstract: Superintelligence, the next phase beyond today’s narrow AI and tomorrow’s AGI, almost intrinsically evades our attempts at detailed comprehension. Yet very different perspectives on superintelligence exist today and have concrete influence on thinking about matters ranging from AGI architectures to technology regulation.One paradigm…

Posthumanism and its Moral Imperatives – Pramod K. Nayar
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Posthumanism and its Moral Imperatives – Pramod K. Nayar

Synopsis: Octavia Butler’s fiction underscores heightened empathy as a possible feature of the future humans (who may be co-evolved with alien species, in Butler’s imagination). Yet, in Butler’s fiction, the morally enhanced beings ponder over the freedom they now possess. This talk, building on the view that ME requires multiple virtues (James Hughes), examines the linkage…

Grand Futures – Anders Sandberg
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Grand Futures – Anders Sandberg

Grand Futures – Thinking Truly Long Term. What are the limits of what advanced civilizations can achieve? What is the upper limit of value? Anders Sandberg speaks on existential hope about the far future and his upcoming book ‘Grand Futures: Thinking Truly Long Term‘, and how to be an optimist about the future. Synopsis: How…