Fall Workshop
October 30th, 2024 in RLP 1.302B. If you plan to attend please help us by registering using this Google form.
Mind
10:00-10:30 Michael Tye (Philosophy)
10:30-10:50 Michelle Montague (Philosophy)
Break: 10:50-11:10
Language
11:10-11:30 Katrin Erk (Linguistics)
11:30-11:50 Kyle Mahowald (Linguistics) and Harvey Lederman (Philosophy)
Break: 11:50-12:00
12:00-12:20 Josh Dever (Philosophy)
Lunch: 12:20-1:30
Ethics
1:30-1:50 Brad Knox (Computer Science and Good Systems)
1:50-2:10 Christian Tarsney (Population Wellbeing Initiative)
Break 2:10-2:30
2:30-2:50 Jessy Li (Linguistics)
2:50-3:10 Mark Budolfson (Philosophy and Geography)
Break 3:10-3:30
Discussion
3:30-4:30 Scott Aaronson (Computer Science) and Melanie Mitchell (Santa Fe Institute)
4:30-5:00 Reception
Sponsored by UT Office of the Vice President for Research, hosted by UT Depts. of Linguistics, Philosophy, and Geography and the Environment
AI, Language, and Mind
Do modern Large Language Models (LLMs) think? Is the text they produce meaningful? Or are they just “stochastic parrots” (i.e. mindless prediction machines)? Faculty in this group are actively studying, and collaborating in their work about, questions about LLM “psychology”, human values, and LLM meaning from the perspective of cognitive science, computational linguistics, and philosophy.
AI Ethics and Safety
How should we design AI systems to recognize important values, such as respecting ethical constraints, and promoting wellbeing? How can we formalize and implement desirable properties of artificial agents? Should we expect artificial agents to differ from human agents in how they make decisions under risk, in ways that are relevant (positively or negatively) for safety? How can we minimize existential risks related to AI? Faculty in this group are actively studying, and collaborating in their work about, questions about AI ethics and safety from the perspective of human values and multiple disciplines including computer science, philosophy, economics, and beyond.
Spring Workshop
January 21st, 2025 in RLP 1.302D
Spring Events
TBA
Faculty: Scott Aaronson, David Beaver, Mark Budolfson, Josh Dever, Katrin Erk, Johan Gustafsson, Brad Knox, Petra Kosonen, Kevin Kuruc, Harvey Lederman, Jessy Li, Kyle Mahowald, Michelle Montague, Christian Tarsney, Michael Tye