SRI’s annual conference explored how increasingly capable AI systems are reshaping public discourse, institutional trust, and the boundaries between technical systems and social life.

Can AI-powered chatbots help young voters better understand politics? SRI Faculty Fellow Semra Sevi and her colleagues tested an interactive voting advice chatbot with nearly 2,900 politically unaffiliated voters under 35—and found significant gains in political knowledge, even if party loyalty remained unchanged.

The Schwartz Reisman Institute’s annual academic conference Absolutely Interdisciplinary explores interdisciplinary approaches to AI governance, risk, and safety on May 13, 2026, at U of T’s Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus. Registration is now open.

A new partnership co-led by Karina Vold is confronting racism in AI systems—highlighting how tools like facial recognition and LLMs disproportionately harm Black and racialized communities, and calling for greater public awareness and equitable governance of AI in Canada.

SRI Executive Director Monique Crichlow argues that Canada’s global AI leadership depends on sustained investment in fundamental research, interdisciplinary science, and thoughtful governance to ensure AI advances serve the public good, not just short-term economic growth.

The SRI Seminar Series continues in winter 2026 with leading scholars examining AI governance, democratic values, and human-centred technology in the public interest.

A new Radical Talks podcast episode features Geoffrey Hinton and Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean in a live conversation recorded at NeurIPS 2025, reflecting on the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence—alongside the announcement of the new Hinton Chair at the University of Toronto.

AI visionaries Geoffrey Hinton and Fei-Fei Li headlined Who’s Afraid of AI?, a landmark University of Toronto conference exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping culture, creativity, and collective imagination. Presented in part by the Schwartz Reisman Institute, the event brought together artists, technologists, and scholars to envision more human-centered futures of intelligence.

How can we stay in control when AI systems surpass human intelligence? In a recent SRI Seminar, Schwartz Reisman Chair David Duvenaud explored the frontier of AI safety, alignment, and governance, introducing new research on “dangerous capability” evaluations and control protocols designed to detect when AI models become too powerful to oversee.

SRI Director David Lie and collaborators have discovered a security flaw in AMD’s cloud protection technology, revealing how interactions between hardware and software can expose sensitive data.

In October 2024, the SRI co-hosted a half-day event with The Dais and Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst to address election integrity, cyber security, and disinformation in the age of AI. The result was The Future Votes report, a reflection of key insights and recommendations for policymakers on how we can practically protect our democratic elections.

How do we successfully govern AI systems that can act autonomously online, making decisions with minimal human oversight? SRI Faculty Affiliate Noam Kolt explores this challenge, highlighting the rise of AI agents, their risks, and the urgent need for transparency, safety testing, and regulatory oversight.