Schmidt Sciences has named SRI Chair Roger Grosse and Faculty Affiliate Marzyeh Ghassemi to its 2024 cohort of AI2050 Fellows. The program funds senior researchers and early career scholars to address a wide range of global challenges in AI.

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society has launched its call for graduate fellows, open to all University of Toronto graduate students whose research explores the social impacts of new technologies.

A recent hackathon and symposium co-sponsored by SRI and U of T's Data Sciences Institute explored new ways of using large language models responsibly, with students and faculty receiving training on how to design efficient, interdisciplinary solutions to promote responsible AI usage.

What opportunities and challenges are there for the use of AI in healthcare? At a recent SRI workshop, experts explored how AI is transforming Ontario's healthcare sector, highlighting its potential to improve care and exploring pressing challenges around patient involvement, health equity, and trustworthy implementation.

SRI researcher Silviu Pitis draws on decision theory to study how the principles of reward design for reinforcement learning agents are formulated. He also aims to understand how large language models make decisions by examining their implicit assumptions. Pitis has received a prestigious OpenAI Superalignment Fast Grant to support his research.

What does safe artificial intelligence look like? Could AI go rogue and pose an existential threat to humanity? These were among the pressing questions tackled by SRI experts during a recent panel discussion on AI safety.

For the third consecutive year, the Schwartz Reisman Institute of Technology and Society opened its doors to a select group of Juris Doctor (JD) students through its summer Research Assistant (RA) program. Learn more about this year's research projects and how our RA partnership with the Future of Law Lab has opened new insights and experiences for students interested in AI governance.

A new report from SRI Research Lead Beth Coleman, SRI Graduate Fellow Madison Mackley, and collaborators explores questions such as: How can we facilitate data-sharing across divisions to improve public policy and service delivery? What are the risks of data-sharing, how can we mitigate those risks, and what are the potential benefits of doing it right?

SRI Director David Lie and 18 collaborators—including five other SRI researchers— will receive $5.6 million in grants over the next four years to develop solutions for critical artificial intelligence (AI) challenges. Learn more about the new funding from NSERC and CSE.

The field of AI safety emphasizes that systems be aligned with human values, often stating AI should “do no harm.” But lethal autonomous systems used for firearms and drones are already harming people. How can we address the reality of purposely harmful AI systems? SRI Graduate Fellow Michael Zhang writes about a panel of experts exploring this topic.

Get to know the 15 new faculty affiliates joining the SRI research community for the 2024–25 academic year. The new cohort of affiliates has expertise in a variety of fields across social sciences, humanities, and STEM disciplines, including geography, psychology, information studies, management, criminology, sociology, history, cultural studies, public health, physiology, pharmaceutical sciences, computer science, and engineering.

Can we trust the behaviours, predictions, and pronouncements of the advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems that are seemingly everywhere in our lives? This question is being explored using a multidisciplinary approach by a working group led by SRI Research Lead Beth Coleman. Learn more about the group members and what they’re working on.