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, valued at USD $150,000, to support his research.

The SRI Seminar Series returns for fall 2024 with leading experts across various fields, including computer science, communications, law, healthcare, and philosophy. Seminars will explore new questions at the intersection of technology and society through critical issues such as trust, inequality, public policy, and the ethical implications of AI systems.

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.

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.

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society is proud to welcome four new faculty fellows and 15 graduate fellows from across the University of Toronto. SRI fellowships support interdisciplinary research projects that build new approaches to examine the complex relations between technology and society.

SRI Faculty Affiliate Nicolas Papernot is using a protocol borrowed from cryptography to develop a technical framework in preparation for possible AI regulation. For this multidisciplinary collaborative project that also includes SRI researcher Lisa Austin, Papernot received an AI2050 Schmidt Sciences Early Career fellowship.

A new report report shares findings on opinions about artificial intelligence (AI) in 21 countries. GPO-AI reveals varying, diverse and region-specific attitudes about the use of artificial intelligence, and topics of focus in the survey include job loss, deepfakes, and state regulation. The project was led by SRI Associate Director Peter Loewen, and features contributions from SRI Graduate Fellow Blake Lee-Whiting.

At SRI’s annual academic conference, leading researchers from diverse fields came together to tackle the complexities of AI alignment and how to better understand the social impacts of data-driven technologies. 28 distinguished speakers presented new approaches and ideas to better understand how these technologies are impacting our world.