Our weekly SRI Seminar Series welcomes Julia Haas, a senior research scientist in the Ethics Research Team at DeepMind. Haas’s research is in the philosophy of cognitive science and neuroscience, the nature of valuation, and its role in theories of the mind. Her current work investigates the possibility of meaningfully moral artificial intelligence.
In this talk, Haas will explore recent developments in reinforcement learning that urge us to move beyond a conception of the mind as merely a thinking machine. Through an understanding of the mind as an evaluative system, Haas proposes the design of artificial agents can be expanded to encompass a broader range of features.
Talk title:
“The evaluative mind”
Abstract:
In his introduction to Mind Design, John Haugeland observes that “an ‘experiment’ in mind design is more often an effort to build something and make it work, than to observe and analyze what already exists.” But what happens when such an experiment in mind design succeeds in a way and to a degree that few could have predicted? And, more to the point, how do we take on the implications of such successes when they challenge central features of how we understand the mind? These are the circumstances that we find ourselves in with respect to developments in reinforcement learning. In my talk, I will argue that the successes and contributions of reinforcement learning urge us to move beyond a conception of the mind as merely a thinking machine—and suggest instead that we should recognize the mind as fundamentally evaluative in nature. I will then show how, by adopting an evaluative account of the mind, we can start to design certain so-called “phenomenological” features into artificial agents.
About Julia Haas
Julia Haas is a senior research scientist in the Ethics Research Team at DeepMind. Haas was previously an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Neuroscience Program at Rhodes College and an affiliated researcher with ANU's Humanizing Machine Intelligence Grand Challenge. She was also a research fellow in the School of Philosophy at the Australian National University and a McDonnell Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology program at Washington University in St. Louis.
Haas’s research is in the philosophy of cognitive science and neuroscience. She works on the nature of valuation and its role in theories of the mind. Her current work includes investigating the possibility of meaningfully moral artificial intelligence.
About the SRI Seminar Series
The SRI Seminar Series brings together the Schwartz Reisman community and beyond for a robust exchange of ideas that advance scholarship at the intersection of technology and society. Seminars are led by a leading or emerging scholar and feature extensive discussion.
Each week, a featured speaker will present for 45 minutes, followed by 45 minutes of discussion. Registered attendees will be emailed a Zoom link approximately one hour before the event begins. The event will be recorded and posted online.
Julia Haas