New paper: “Proof-producing reflection for HOL”

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MIRI Research Fellow Benya Fallenstein and Research Associate Ramana Kumar have co-authored a new paper on machine reflection, “Proof-producing reflection for HOL with an application to model polymorphism.” HOL stands for Higher Order Logic, here referring to a popular family of proof assistants based on Church’s type theory. Kumar and collaborators have previously formalized within… Read more »

December 2015 Newsletter

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Research updates New papers: “Formalizing Convergent Instrumental Goals” and “Quantilizers: A Safer Alternative to Maximizers for Limited Optimization.” These papers have been accepted to the AAAI-16 workshop on AI, Ethics and Society. New at AI Impacts: Recently at AI Impacts New at IAFF: A First Look at the Hard Problem of Corrigibility; Superrationality in Arbitrary… Read more »

New paper: “Quantilizers”

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MIRI Research Fellow Jessica Taylor has written a new paper on an error-tolerant framework for software agents, “Quantilizers: A safer alternative to maximizers for limited optimization.” Taylor’s paper will be presented at the AAAI-16 AI, Ethics and Society workshop. The abstract reads: In the field of AI, expected utility maximizers are commonly used as a… Read more »

New paper: “Formalizing convergent instrumental goals”

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Tsvi Benson-Tilsen, a MIRI associate and UC Berkeley PhD candidate, has written a paper with contributions from MIRI Executive Director Nate Soares on strategies that will tend to be useful for most possible ends: “Formalizing convergent instrumental goals.” The paper will be presented as a poster at the AAAI-16 AI, Ethics and Society workshop. Steve… Read more »

November 2015 Newsletter

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Research updates A new paper: Leó Szilárd and the Danger of Nuclear Weapons New at IAFF: Subsequence Induction A shortened version of the Reflective Oracles paper has been published in the LORI 2015 conference proceedings. General updates Castify has released professionally recorded audio versions of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Rationality: From AI to Zombies: Part 1, Part… Read more »

Edge.org contributors discuss the future of AI

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In January, nearly 200 public intellectuals submitted essays in response to the 2015 Edge.org question, “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?” (available online). The essay prompt began: In recent years, the 1980s-era philosophical discussions about artificial intelligence (AI)—whether computers can “really” think, refer, be conscious, and so on—have led to new conversations about… Read more »

October 2015 Newsletter

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Research updates New paper: Asymptotic Logical Uncertainty and The Benford Test New at IAFF: Proof Length and Logical Counterfactuals Revisited; Quantilizers Maximize Expected Utility Subject to a Conservative Cost Constraint General updates As a way to engage more researchers in mathematics, logic, and the methodology of science, Andrew Critch and Tsvi Benson-Tilsen are currently co-running… Read more »