Date: February 14, 2025 (Friday) Time: 13:00 – 18:00 Venue: 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong Registration: here Iason Gabriel, Staff Research Scientist, Google Deepmind Geoffrey Keeling, Senior Research Scientist, Google
Abstract: The speaker will distinguish some different conceptions of alignment, exploring how each conception relates to safety and existential risk.
Abstract: Central to the inquiry of cognitive science is the idea of agents for whom there is the possibility of both success and failure. If we think that LLMs are the sort of thing that fall within the domain of cognitive science, then we should also ask whether they are agents of this kind – …
Date: December 4, 2024 (Wednesday) Time: 13:00 – 15:00 Venue: G/F, Seminar Room, HKU Main Library Registration: here Speaker: Dr Henry Shevlin, University of Cambridge Chair: Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Abstract: Recent rapid progress in artificial intelligence has prompted renewed interest in the possibility of consciousness in artificial systems. This talk argues that this question forces …
Date: December 6, 2024 (Friday) Time: 13:00 – 15:00 Venue: 2/F, MPA, HKU Main Library Registration: here Speaker: Dr Karina Vold, University of Toronto Chair: Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly able to outperform humans at specific tasks, such as beating world champions at Go and solving 50-year-old grand challenges in …
Epistemic opportunities: AI Systems as Cognitive Scaffolding Read More »
Abstract: Since the 1960s, philosophers have seriously considered the possibility that psychological states could be multiply realizable in not only in humans and other terrestrial creatures, but also in potential alien and artificial cognizers. For many it has become an accepted constraint on our theories of the nature of perception and cognition that they would …
Abstract: Since the 1960s, philosophers have seriously considered the possibility that psychological states could be multiply realizable in not only in humans and other terrestrial creatures, but also in potential alien and artificial cognizers. For many it has become an accepted constraint on our theories of the nature of perception and cognition that they would …
Date: March 26-27, 2025 (Wednesday, Thursday) Time: 09:30 – 16:30 (Programme rundown will be provided later) Venue: 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU Registration: here Dr Frank Hong, The University of Hong Kong Prof Darrell Rowbottom, Lingnan University Prof Jiji Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Dr Pak-Hang Wong, Hong Kong Baptist University Dr Jun Otsuka, Kyoto University …
Abstract: The idea that advances in the cognitive capacities of foundation models like LLMs will lead to a period of rapid, recursive self-improvement — an “intelligence explosion” or “technological singularity” — has recently come under sustained criticism by academic philosophers. I evaluate the extent to which this criticism successfully undermines the argument for a singularity, …
Abstract: A common view is that a normal human assertion is successful only if (i) the speaker utters words which express what they intend to express, and (ii) the hearer comes to believe what is expressed. We examine how this picture looks on the hypothesis that LLMs can make assertions. In particular, we ask whether …
Meaning and the Mechanics of Production in LLMs (with Kyle Mahowald) Read More »