Brian Christian

Author of The Alignment Problem, Algorithms to Live By (w. Tom Griffiths), and The Most Human Human. Researcher at UC Berkeley & the University of Oxford.

The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values

May 12, 2021 - 12:00 PM Eastern Time

Talk Abstract:

With the incredible growth of machine learning over recent years has come an increasing concern about whether ML systems' objectives truly capture their human designers' intent: the so-called "alignment problem." Over the last five years, these questions of both ethics and safety have moved from the margins of the field to become arguably its most central concerns. The result is something of a movement: a vibrant, multifaceted, interdisciplinary effort that is producing some of the most exciting research happening today. Brian Christian, visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and author of the acclaimed bestsellers "The Most Human Human" and "Algorithms to Live By," will survey this landscape of recent progress and the frontier of open questions that remain.

Speaker Bio:

Brian Christian is the author of the acclaimed bestsellers "The Most Human Human" and "Algorithms to Live By," which have been translated into nineteen languages. His most recent book, "The Alignment Problem," has just been published and has been named a Los Angeles Times Finalist for Best Science & Technology Book of the Year. Christian is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is affiliated with the where he is an affiliate of the Center for IT Research in the Interest of Society and the Center for Human-Compatible AI, and he lives in San Francisco.