Seminars

The Cooperative AI Foundation (CAIF) is hosting a fortnightly seminar series on New Directions in Cooperative AI, in which we invite leading thinkers from a range of disciplines to offer their vision for research on Cooperative AI. Join us for future talks by signing up to the Cooperative AI mailing list, and apply to give a seminar by submitting a proposal.

Unlike typical academic talks, these seminars will be explicitly agenda-setting, describing a line of work that many researchers could pursue and that CAIF could support. If you are interested in submitting a proposal for a seminar, we invite you to apply as per the instructions below. Proposals will be evaluated on a rolling basis, will receive notification of acceptance, revision, or rejection within one month, and – in recognition of the additional burden of preparing such a talk – will also receive a $5000 honorarium if successful.

You can keep up to date with both our public events by subscribing to our public calendar (via Google, or by adding this ICS URL to your calendar application). Previous seminars are uploaded to our YouTube channel.

Date

Seminar Title

Speakers

Wolfram Barfuss (University of Tübingen, Princeton University)

15:00-16:30 UTC 19 May 2022

Gillian Hadfield (Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, University of Toronto)

16:00-17:30 UTC 6 May 2022

Edward Hughes (DeepMind)

15:00-16:30 UTC 22 April 2022

Jesse Clifton (Center on Long-Term Risk, CAIF, NCSU)
Sammy Martin (KCL, Center on Long-Term Risk)

13:00-14:00 UTC 10 March 2022

Vincent Conitzer (Duke University, University of Oxford)

15:00-16:00 UTC 20 January 2022

How to get involved

In order to give a New Directions in Cooperative AI seminar, we ask potential speakers to submit a written proposal via this form.


Proposals should be thorough and considered, reflecting on why the specific proposed research direction would be otherwise neglected, is tractable, and most importantly, will have high expected impact in advancing CAIF's mission. They should be no more than two pages in length and should address the following questions:

  • Summarize your view of what we know, what we don’t know, and what we need to know in order to build cooperative AI.
  • Describe your vision for a research agenda that CAIF could support to promote the cooperative intelligence of advanced AI systems for the benefit of all.
  • Why should this proposal be a priority for CAIF?
    – To what extent is it tractable, important, and neglected?
    – Will it produce generalizable insights – in particular, insights that will continue to be relevant as AI systems become increasingly powerful?
    – Why might it not be a priority (and is there any way to find out)?
  • Can you offer practical guidance regarding the specific steps CAIF can take to support this research?

Applications

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and we will notify you as to whether your application has been accepted within one month. 


In some cases, we may reject an application but express interest in helping the applicant to submit a revised proposal that is a better fit for the seminar series. In recognition of the additional burden of preparing such a talk, CAIF will grant those selected with a $5000 USD honorarium. 


For more guidance on structuring a talk, please see our recordings of previous talks and further details on how we think about impact. If you have any questions about the seminar series or the application process please contact us.