August 10, 2023

Lewis Hammond, Cooperative AI | Introduction to Cooperative AI

53 minutes

Lewis is based at the University of Oxford where he is a DPhil candidate in computer science and a DPhil affiliate at the Future of Humanity Institute. He is also the acting executive director of the Cooperative AI Foundation, an affiliate at the Centre for the Governance of AI, and a fellow at the Foresight Institute. His research concerns safety, control, and incentives in multi-agent systems and in practice spans game theory, formal methods, and machine learning. Before coming to Oxford he obtained a BSc in mathematics and philosophy from the University of Warwick and an MSc in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh.

In this talk I will provide an introduction to cooperative AI – a growing subfield of AI (safety) research that seeks to improve the cooperative intelligence of artificial agents and thus their ability to increase the joint welfare of humans, machines, and groups thereof. After motivating the importance of cooperation in the context of AI, I will highlight the location of cooperative AI within the broader landscape of AI safety research (most of which considers only single-agent settings) and provide several examples of problems and progress in this area. I will also provide a brief introduction to the Cooperative AI Foundation, a new charitable organisation that seeks to build the field.

Session summary

The Foresight Institute is a research organization and non-profit that supports the beneficial development of high-impact technologies. Since our founding in 1987 on a vision of guiding powerful technologies, we have continued to evolve into a many-armed organization that focuses on several fields of science and technology that are too ambitious for legacy institutions to support.

Allison Duettmann is the president and CEO of Foresight Institute. She directs the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Biotech & Health Extension, Neurotech, and Space Programs, Fellowships, Prizes, and Tech Trees, and shares this work with the public. She founded Existentialhope.com, co-edited Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy, co-authored Gaming the Future, and co-initiated The Longevity Prize.