The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) was delighted to participate in the Beneficial Artificial General Intelligence 2019 conference in Puerto Rico early in January.
After the Puerto Rico AI conference in 2015 and Asilomar Beneficial AI conference in 2017, the conference returned to Puerto Rico at the start of 2019 to talk about Beneficial AGI. Several groups, organizations, conferences and workshops that have cropped up in the last few years to ensure that AI today and in the near future will be safe and beneficial. And so now the intention was to look further ahead to artificial general intelligence (AGI), the classic goal of AI research, which promises tremendous transformation in society. Beyond mitigating risks, the aim was to explore how we can design AGI to help us create the best future for humanity.
The Future of Life Institute again brought together an amazing group of AI researchers from academia and industry, as well as thought leaders in economics, law, policy, ethics, and philosophy for five days dedicated to beneficial AI. The two-day technical workshop looking deeply at how we can create beneficial AGI was followed by a 2.5-day conference, in which people from a broader AI background considered the opportunities and challenges related to the future of AGI and steps we can take today to move toward an even better future.
The conference focused on discussions about future directions, technical safety challenges ahead of us, and how society can work together to develop a better future. Speakers and participants included CSER researchers Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Haydn Belfield, Shahar Avin and Yang Liu; CSER affiliates Beth Barnes, Martina Kunz and Seth Baum; CSER Advisors Nick Bostrom, Adrian Weller and Stuart Russell; and CSER co-founder Jaan Tallinn.
Full schedule and list of speakers
