Our Work
Seth wrote an article in Aeon to explain the suite of ethical issues being raised by AI agents built out of generative foundation models (Generative Agents). The essay explores the strengths and weaknesses of methods for aligning LLMs to human values, as well as the prospective societal impacts of Generative Agents from AI companions, to Attention Guardians, to universal intermediaries.
Read MoreWith former acting White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director, Alondra Nelson, Seth argued against a narrow technical approach to AI safety, calling instead for more work to be done on sociotechnical AI safety, that situates the risks posed by AI as a technical system in the context of the broader sociotechnical systems of which they are part.
Read MoreIn November, MINT Lab Research Fellow Sean Donahue traveled to Sydney, Hong Kong, and Carnegie Mellon universities to present his research on platform legitimacy and digital governance.
Read MoreThis week at the MINT Lab Seminar, Jake Stone presented his research arguing that corporate involvement in open source AI isn't simply exploitative, but can create mutually beneficial partnerships when properly governed.
Read MoreOn December 5, Seth Lazar presented at the Lingnan University Ethics of Artificial Intelligence Conference on rethinking how we evaluate LLM ethical competence. His talk critiqued current approaches focused on binary ethical judgments, arguing instead for evaluations that assess LLMs' capacity for substantive moral reasoning and justification.
Read MoreThis week, Harriet Farlow and Tania Sadhani presented their framework for analyzing AI incident likelihood. Developed through a collaboration between Mileva Security Labs, ANU MINT Lab, and UNSW, with funding from Foresight, their work aims to bridge short and long-term AI risks through practical quantification methods.
Read MoreThis week Robert Long spoke to the lab about his newest paper with MINT lab affiliate Jacqueline Harding arguing that near-term AI systems may develop consciousness, requiring immediate attention to AI welfare considerations.
Read MoreIn this seminar Emma argues that transformer architectures demonstrate that machine learning models cannot assimilate theoretical paradigms.
Read MoreSeth Lazar has been invited to attend a convening of the Network of AI Safety Institutes hosted by the US AISI, to take place in San Francisco on November 20-21.
Read MoreOn September 30-October 1 MINT co-organised a workshop convened by Imbue, a leading AI startup based in San Francisco, focused on assessing the prospective impacts of language model agents on society through the lens of classical liberalism.
Read MoreIn this seminar Jen Semler presents her work examining why delegating moral decisions to AI systems is problematic, even when these systems can make reliable judgements.
Read MoreProfessor Seth Lazar will be a keynote speaker at the inaugural Australian AI Safety Forum 2024, joining other leading experts to discuss critical challenges in ensuring the safe development of artificial intelligence.
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