As usual, my colleagues and I continue to share our research progress and developments thorough scientific conferences. This time we find our selves presenting in the good ol’ US of A in the tech juggernaut San Francisco. It will be great to learn about new developments in autotelic agents and motivation systems. Bonus points for any demos that take place in the metaverse or with robotics.

I have heard a lot of negative things about San Francisco over the years and a few positive things. Either way, I’m looking forward to making my own opinion about the place.

I’m also looking forward to the important discussions and panels that have become common at AI conferences. Back when I was a student at CUNY Graduate Center, we’d occasionally chat about ethics in the student lounge and where we see “all of this” going. Some of us were excited while others were cynically waiting for humanity to fuck it all up, like usual. As much as scientists like creating cool new things, it’s important to reflect on the potential impact, i.e., the fall out from scientists introducing society to their pet projects.

Surrounding these discussions are questions about whether artificial general intelligence is even possible and what it should align with. Several years ago, there was a push from big AI companies to do research on superalignment for super intelligent agents. Alignment and safe autonomy are now well established topics in AI. And there’s still the crowd that believes AGI and human-level intelligence is just vaporware selling statistics to the layman as something magical.

There’s just too many important discussions that need to be had on this topic. In fact it reminds me of a heated chat I had with some peers one chilly evening over a couple of Guinness beers and cider. One person said he did not have ethical qualms about conducting any kind of research because if he didn’t do it, someone else would. All the while he used his parents sacrifices and commitment to do the right thing for future generations as an example, which was ironic. My friend on the other hand was emphatic that with great power came great responsibility and that scientists must take responsibility for the things they create. Like déjà vu we are now seeing these very same arguments play out in real-time among tech giants.