MIRI Research Associate Vanessa Kosoy has developed a new framework for reasoning under logical uncertainty, “Optimal polynomial-time estimators: A Bayesian notion of approximation algorithm.” Abstract: The concept of an “approximation algorithm” is usually only applied to optimization problems, since in optimization problems the performance of the algorithm on any given input is a continuous parameter…. Read more »
Posts By: Rob Bensinger
December 2016 Newsletter
We’re in the final weeks of our push to cover our funding shortfall, and we’re now halfway to our $160,000 goal. For potential donors who are interested in an outside perspective, Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) researcher Owen Cotton-Barratt has written up why he’s donating to MIRI this year. (Donation page.) Research updates New at IAFF:… Read more »
November 2016 Newsletter
Post-fundraiser update: Donors rallied late last month to get us most of the way to our first fundraiser goal, but we ultimately fell short. This means that we’ll need to make up the remaining $160k gap over the next month if we’re going to move forward on our 2017 plans. We’re in a good position… Read more »
White House submissions and report on AI safety
In May, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced “a new series of workshops and an interagency working group to learn more about the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence.” They hosted a June Workshop on Safety and Control for AI (videos), along with three other workshops, and issued a general… Read more »
MIRI AMA, and a talk on logical induction
Nate, Malo, Jessica, Tsvi, and I will be answering questions tomorrow at the Effective Altruism Forum. If you’ve been curious about anything related to our research, plans, or general thoughts, you’re invited to submit your own questions in the comments below or at Ask MIRI Anything. We’ve also posted a more detailed version of our… Read more »
October 2016 Newsletter
Our big announcement this month is our paper “Logical Induction,” introducing an algorithm that learns to assign reasonable probabilities to mathematical, empirical, and self-referential claims in a way that outpaces deduction. MIRI’s 2016 fundraiser is also live, and runs through the end of October. Research updates Shtetl-Optimized and n-Category Café discuss the “Logical Induction”… Read more »
September 2016 Newsletter
Research updates New at IAFF: Modeling the Capabilities of Advanced AI Systems as Episodic Reinforcement Learning; Simplified Explanation of Stratification New at AI Impacts: Friendly AI as a Global Public Good We ran two research workshops this month: a veterans’ workshop on decision theory for long-time collaborators and staff, and a machine learning workshop focusing on generalizable environmental goals, impact… Read more »
August 2016 Newsletter
Research updates A new paper: “Alignment for Advanced Machine Learning Systems.” Half of our research team will be focusing on this research agenda going forward, while the other half continues to focus on the agent foundations agenda. New at AI Impacts: Returns to Scale in Research Evan Lloyd represented MIRIxLosAngeles at AGI-16 this month, presenting… Read more »
