Vector Institute

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Law

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

Roger Grosse and David Duvenaud named Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society, while David Lie becomes the institute’s new director

A leading expert in cybersecurity and two renowned AI safety researchers are set to take on leading roles at the �r��’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

David Lie, who is known for his seminal work that led to modern trusted execution processor architectures, has been named the new director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute (SRI), which aims to explore and address the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

His four-year appointment, which takes effect July 1, coincides with two renowned experts in AI safety – Roger Grosse and David Duvenaud – being named Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society for five-year terms.

“I think one of the top priorities is ensuring that SRI and �r�� are the primary places in Canada – and perhaps in the world – for AI safety discussion and research,” says Lie, a professor in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering.

“My vision is to make us one of the leaders. Canada has already contributed greatly to machine learning and AI through the contributions of previous scholars like [University Professor Emeritus] Geoffrey Hinton, and I think we have a very strong role to play in this important technology going forward.”

The appointments come as inaugural director and chair Gillian Hadfield prepares to conclude her term as chair this month (she stepped down as director at the end of last year). The institute, created following a historic gift in 2019 from business leaders Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman, brings together experts from disciplines across �r��’s three campuses to steer AI development to prioritize safety and human welfare.

“We are thrilled to welcome David Lie, Roger Grosse and David Duvenaud to their new roles at the Schwartz Reisman Institute,” says Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “Their expertise and leadership will be instrumental in fostering the interdisciplinary collaboration needed for the �r�� to remain at the forefront of technological innovation that benefits humanity.”

Lie, who has served as a research lead at SRI and holds cross-appointments in the department of computer science and the Faculty of Law, says his decades of research on making computer systems more secure and trustworthy – including contributions to computer architecture, formal verification, techniques using operating systems and networking – have equipped him to tackle the complex issues posed by AI, which will require researchers to anticipate and adapt to the unexpected.

“As AI become more powerful, they may do things – or are already doing things – that we didn’t anticipate or expect,” says Lie. “Bringing cybersecurity skills, thinking and tools into the AI safety discussion will be absolutely critical to solving the problem.”

Lie emphasizes that interdisciplinary collaboration is key to addressing potential AI disruption, noting that it has been pivotal in his own research and other roles.

His current research focuses on securing mobile platforms, cloud computing security and bridging the divide between technology and policy. He is also an associate director at the Data Sciences Institute, a �r�� institutional strategic initiative, a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and a senior fellow at Massey College.

“It’s really one of the things that I love about a place like �r��, because it's big and you have experts in every imaginable field to collaborate with,” he says. “I feel very strongly that we can always accomplish way more together than we can individually. That's true for people, but that's also true for disciplines.”

As incoming Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society, Grosse and Duvenaud have vital roles to play in driving SRI’s research agenda and sharing its findings with the world, says Lie.

“One of the main ways universities contribute to society is through research, but we also contribute through discourse; we contribute by translating knowledge and providing that to policymakers, decision-makers and stakeholders,” he says. “I see SRI playing an important part in these roles.”

Both Grosse and Duvenaud are associate professors of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, faculty affiliates at SRI, founding members of the Vector Institute and Canada CIFAR AI chairs – and both are working at San Francisco-based Anthropic, a research company focused on AI safety and alignment.

Grosse, whose research applies our understanding of deep learning to the safety and alignment of AI systems, says academia has an essential role to play in guiding AI development by looking beyond short-term incentives to ask how these technologies can be safely and ethically integrated for the long-term benefit of humanity.

“I'm very excited to be able to understand and mitigate catastrophic risks from AI, to be part of an interdisciplinary community that's especially well positioned to make progress in these issues, and I really appreciate the leadership that donors are showing and supporting this work,” he says.

“I think academia is great for being able to ask the more fundamental questions, to carry out maybe more forward-looking research that might not be directly on a company's critical path, but will contribute to safety efforts at many different organizations.”

Duvenaud’s research, meanwhile, focuses on probabilistic deep learning, artificial general intelligence governance and dangerous capabilities evaluation.

He envisions SRI as a “centre of gravity” where academics, industry members, government leaders and other stakeholders can engage with each other and shape the future of AI technologies.

“The idea is that by having this institute dedicated to this direction, we’ll be able to do things like host visitors and engage with academics from all sorts of disciplines –such as law, economics, and other parts of civil society – so that, ultimately, when policy discussions come up, we’ll be equipped and credible as people who can help governments navigate these decisions,” says Duvenaud, who is cross appointed to the department of statistical sciences.

Sheila McIlraith, an associate director and research lead at SRI, professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, underlines the importance of rallying diverse disciplinary experts from across �r�� to address the opportunities and challenges that AI will wield in the coming years.

“AI is no longer the sole purview of computer scientists. It is reshaping the way we live, work, and interact with each other, and it will take experts from a broad range of disciplines to help ensure that AI is developed and deployed for the benefit of humanity, and that Canada adapts swiftly to protect our institutions," says McIlraith, who is an expert in AI safety research herself.

“Threats are already upon us; now is the time to act.”

What Now? AI, Episode 4: AI and Creativity

mattimar — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 21:22:39 +0000

What Now? AI, Episode 4: AI and Creativity mattimar Thu, 04/25/2024 - 17:22

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

What Now? AI

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Faculty of Information

Startups

�r�� Mississauga

The creative industry is poised to be forever changed by artificial intelligence.

Writing tools like ChatGPT and image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E have exploded into the mainstream. Adobe built its own version of generative AI technology for its creative suites and OpenAI announced its text-to-video model, Sora.

What impact will these tools and models have on the creative process? How will they change the role of an artist?

In the fourth episode of What Now? AI, hosts Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan dive into these questions with AI researchers Sanja Fidler of the �r�� and Nick Frosst, who co-founded the startup Cohere.

Listen to episode four on  Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio and Amazon. Watch episode four on YouTube. 

Fidler, the vice president of AI research at NVIDIA and an associate professor of mathematical and computational sciences at �r�� Mississauga, says that while AI technology is still in its early stage, it has the potential to provide artists with more adaptability and creative control.

“When artists see these methods like text-to-x, text-to-image or text-to-video, I feel that they have pushback because now there is only text that allows you to control the content,” says Fidler, an affiliate faculty member at the Vector Institute, which she co-founded.

“I think artists do want to have this iterative creative control. They have some idea in their head, and they have all these tools that allowed them to go from that idea into the final product. We want to do the same thing with AI as well.”

Frosst, who sings in the band Good Kid, says he doesn’t use large language models to help him write songs – only to help analyze lyrics and themes.

“I’m not really looking to optimize my artistic expression,” says Frosst, who completed his undergraduate degree in computer science and cognitive science at �r��.

“I don’t really want to write a new Good Kid song and be less involved. I want to be more involved.”

Frosst believes AI will change the way art is created, but not to the point where people aren’t interested in the artists who are making it.

“We want to know who made it, and that’s mostly what’s enjoyable about it.”

About the hosts:

Beth Coleman is an associate professor at �r�� Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information. She is also a research lead on AI policy and praxis at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Coleman authored Reality Was Whatever Happened: Octavia Butler AI and Other Possible Worlds using art and generative AI.

Rahul Krishnan is an assistant professor in �r��’s department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. He is a Canada CIFAR Chair at the Vector Institute, a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and a faculty member at the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM).

What Now? AI, Episode 2: Safe and Accountable

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:57:17 +0000

What Now? AI, Episode 2: Safe and Accountable Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/11/2024 - 08:57

Mariam Matti

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

What Now? AI

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Faculty of Information

Faculty of Law

Research & Innovation

�r�� Mississauga

As AI becomes more integrated into our lives, how do we make sure it aligns with our values while minimizing risks?

In the second episode of What Now? AI, hosts Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan are joined by �r�� experts Gillian Hadfield and Roger Grosse as they tackle critical questions surrounding AI safety, regulation and alignment.

Listen to episode two on Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio and Amazon. Watch episode two on YouTube.

Grosse, an associate professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and a founding member of the Vector Institute, joined the technical staff on the alignment team at Anthropic, an AI safety and research company based in San Francisco, during a sabbatical last year.

He calls working on AI research and systems while investigating safety a “difficult needle to thread.”

“As you move up the ladder of different AI capabilities, new requirements start kicking in – in terms of keeping the models secure from bad actors and being able to make sure they won’t intentionally carry out harmful plans,” says Grosse, a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

Hadfield, a professor of law and strategic management in the Faculty of Law and the inaugural Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society, has proposed a national registry for large AI models. She thinks companies should disclose to governments what they’re building, the data being used and the AI model’s capabilities.

“This is a unique moment in human history,” says Hadfield, who holds a CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for AI and served as a senior policy adviser to OpenAI from 2018 to 2023. “I think this is the first time that you have such a powerful technology that is being developed almost exclusively within private technology companies, so the public and the academic sector don’t have full visibility into how the technology is working.”

About the hosts:

Beth Coleman is an associate professor at �r�� Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information. She is also a research lead on AI policy and praxis at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Coleman authored Reality Was Whatever Happened: Octavia Butler AI and Other Possible Worlds using art and generative AI.

Rahul Krishnan is an assistant professor in �r��’s department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. He is a Canada CIFAR Chair at the Vector Institute, a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and a faculty member at the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM).

Jordan Jacobs on AI’s ‘profound’ implications, responsible development – and why he backed Cohere

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 22:39:50 +0000

Jordan Jacobs on AI’s ‘profound’ implications, responsible development – and why he backed Cohere

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/04/2024 - 18:39

Cutline

(photo courtesy of Cohere)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Entrepreneurship

Startups

Subheadline

The managing partner of Radical Ventures, a venture capital firm, will be at �r��'s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy to discuss artificial intelligence during the Future of Money conference

A key figure in Canada’s burgeoning artificial intelligence scene, Jordan Jacobs boasts a track record of backing ventures at the vanguard of AI development – and the �r�� often plays a prominent role.

Jacobs and �r�� alumnus Tomi Poutanen have co-founded some of the most influential entities in Canada’s AI ecosystem, including Layer 6, which was acquired by TD Bank Group in 2018; the Vector Institute, a world-renowned AI research hub that counts �r�� among its early partners; and venture capital firm Radical Ventures, where Jacobs currently serves as managing partner.

He’s also a founding investor and board director of Cohere, a leading developer of enterprise-focused AI technologies founded by former �r�� computer science students Aidan Gomez, Nick Frosst and Ivan Zhang – and backed by AI luminaries University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton and Professor Raquel Urtasun.

Now, Jacobs is sharing his insights at the Future of Money conference, co-produced by Cohere and �r��’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, where he’ll take part in an AI-focused fireside chat alongside Cohere chief product officer and �r�� alumnus Jaron Waldman.

�r�� News caught up with Jacobs ahead of the event to discuss how companies like Cohere are tapping into the deep pool of talent at �r�� and beyond to forge AI-powered solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.

We’ve seen some incredible advancements in AI over the last year or so and heard some alarming warnings about the risks it could pose. What’s your take on how AI is evolving?

Over the next decade, virtually every bit of software will be replaced by artificial intelligence or embedded with it. The implications for our world and the global economy are profound.

Traditional software is hard-coded and static. Once shipped and deployed, it never improves until the next version is shipped and replaces it. Soon, all software will be powered by AI that learns and improves, often in real-time. Built around learning algorithms that adapt to new situations, AI software is more efficient and effective. This is particularly true for generative AI, which can create new data or software code on its own, without the need for human input.

This coming software replacement cycle will have an extraordinary impact on our economy. In addition, AI will help unlock new discoveries across science. These are Industrial Revolution-sized opportunities – happening simultaneously and enabled by one technology.

One of my personal motivations for starting Radical was to invest in companies that would help solve the biggest challenges facing humanity. When we were thinking of selling our AI company, Layer 6, to focus on building the leading AI investment firm, I said to my Radical co-founder and �r�� alum, Tomi Poutanen: “AI will help cure cancers. Let’s help cure cancer.”

How would you describe venture capital’s role when it comes to responsible AI development?

Venture capital is an essential driver of economic value and innovation. Only half of one per cent of public companies received venture funding, but VC-backed companies account for 40 per cent of total U.S. market capitalization. VC plays a disproportionate role in the economy, especially when it comes to the development of new technologies such as AI. OpenAI, Cohere and the startups behind the large language models that helped bring AI to the mainstream over the past year received multiple rounds of funding from venture capital firms. Google and Meta – whose industrial labs created some of the biggest AI breakthroughs of the last decade – were, at one time, fuelled by venture capital.

At Radical, we are committed to developing AI technologies and applications that improve the future for all, and we believe that the venture capital industry – the underwriters of tomorrow’s innovations – must approach investments in AI with a sense of shared responsibility. Last year, in partnership with the Vector Institute, we launched the Responsible AI for Startups (RAIS) framework – an open-source resource for investors evaluating investments in AI technologies. RAIS is a practical tool to help VCs assess early-stage AI companies and technologies across responsibility and safety considerations.

Let's talk about Cohere, a startup that has numerous �r�� ties and several high-profile backers, including yourself. How is it different from other companies developing large language models?

Cohere is one of a cohort of companies, including OpenAI and Google DeepMind, that is developing the world’s most sophisticated large language models. Unlike most competitors in the space, Cohere’s focus is offering a cloud-agnostic, privacy-preserving solution for enterprise customers, which include Oracle and McKinsey.

Cohere’s founders are three Canadian entrepreneurs [and former �r�� computer science students]: Aidan Gomez, the company’s CEO and one of the authors of the groundbreaking transformers paper that ushered in the era of modern generative AI; Nick Frosst, protege of deep learning pioneer and [University Professor Emeritus] Geoffrey Hinton, and their classmate Ivan Zhang. Today, the team includes many of the inventors of some of the most widely used modern AI techniques.

How would you describe Cohere's growth to date — and where do you see it heading in the future?

Radical was deeply engaged with Cohere prior to company incorporation and invested the very first cheque into the company in 2019. Since then, Cohere has developed world-class language models that compete directly with the best models in the world, grown the team to more than 200 people across offices in Toronto, San Francisco, New York City and London, and signed many global enterprises as customers. It is now one of the most valuable AI companies in the world. Given the technical complexities of working with cutting-edge AI models, there are few companies that have the experience and expertise to push the field forward while also delivering huge value to industry. Cohere leads the pack.

What advice would you give researchers or students who are keen on building a company in the AI space?

Tackle the most important problems. Building a business aimed at making incremental advances on existing technologies may find a market in the near-term. However, in the long run, these businesses are vulnerable to competition or commodification by existing AI solutions. Whether it’s tackling climate change, increasing business productivity or curing cancer, AI is a technology capable of taking on many of the world’s biggest challenges.

It’s also important to remember that we are still in the very early innings of the AI revolution. The field will continue to evolve and change. There’s a very real opportunity right now for young entrepreneurs to shape the future of this important technology.

How will AI change our world? �r�� podcast explores technology’s impact on society

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:17:45 +0000

How will AI change our world? �r�� podcast explores technology’s impact on society

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/04/2024 - 11:17

Mariam Matti

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Unity Health

What Now? AI

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

CIFAR

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Faculty of Information

Faculty of Law

Geoffrey Hinton

Startups

�r�� Mississauga

Subheadline

In What Now? AI, hosts Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan explore – and demystify – artificial intelligence and its impact on society with the help of leading experts

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence are posing profound questions about the future – and about us.

Can we ensure safety and alignment within AI systems? How might AI forever transform fields like health care? What ripple effects could AI have on jobs and livelihoods, including in creative industries?

�r�� researchers Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan explore – and demystify – these and other topics by tapping into the knowledge of leading AI experts in What Now? AI, a new �r�� podcast that launches this week.

It can be found on Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio and Amazon.

An associate professor at �r�� Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information, Coleman says she hopes the episodes help audiences make sense of new AI tools and systems by cutting through “all the noisiness and controversy that has taken over the headlines.”

“It can be complex and technical, but it’s also social,” says Coleman, a research lead on AI policy and praxis at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology & Society.

“What we do with AI makes a difference and more people need to be able to share that knowledge.”

Coleman’s own research centres around technology and society with a focus on data and cities, AI and policy, and generative arts. Inspired by Octavia Butler’s 1980 Xenogenesis trilogy, Coleman authored Reality Was Whatever Happened: Octavia Butler AI and Other Possible Worlds using art and generative AI.

Krishnan, meanwhile, is an assistant professor in �r��’s department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. A Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute and Canada Research Chair in computational medicine, Krishnan and his team focus on teaching neural networks about causality, building deep learning models that analyze cause and effect from data.

“I’m excited to co-host this podcast to explore and demystify for a broader audience AI through the lens of an accomplished and diverse set of experts,” says Krishnan, who is also a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and a faculty member at the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM).

What Now? AI picks up where the conversation started last year by Geoffrey Hinton, the cognitive psychologist and University Professor emeritus of computer science who is known as the “Godfather of AI.” After a lifetime spent developing a type of AI known as deep learning, Hinton stepped back from his role at Google to warn about the existential threats of unchecked AI development.

Since then, there have been ongoing advancements in AI research, technological applications and policy development.

Coleman and Krishnan will tackle these and other topics with guests:

Gillian Hadfield, professor of law and strategic management at the Faculty of Law and the Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society.
Roger Grosse, associate professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and founding member of the Vector Institute.
Christine Allen, professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and co-founder and CEO of Intrepid Labs Inc.
Andrew Pinto, a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, and associate professor in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
Nick Frosst, co-founder of Cohere, singer in Good Kid band and a �r�� computer science and cognitive science alumnus.

“The What Now? AI podcast highlights the incredible researchers at the �r�� who are exploring the profound implications of this transformative technology,” says Leah Cowen, �r��’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “These discussions tackle critical questions surrounding AI safety and alignment and its myriad implications across various domains.

“The university is committed to fostering informed discussions that will shape our collective understanding of AI’s role in our society and in our future.”

Coleman says she hopes listeners come away from the podcast feeling more grounded.

Krishnan, for his part, wants the audience to understand “that there is no one group that has ownership” over the technology” and that “the free exchange of ideas and open-source tools encourage people from all disciplines to come see how accessible AI can be, what AI can do for them and how they can advance the discourse in the field.”

Geoffrey Hinton fields questions from scholars, students during academic talk on responsible AI

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:48:22 +0000

Geoffrey Hinton fields questions from scholars, students during academic talk on responsible AI

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 11/02/2023 - 10:48

Cutline

Geoffrey Hinton, a University Professor Emeritus of computer science who has been dubbed the “Godfather of AI,” delivers an academic talk about artificial intelligence in �r��’s Convocation Hall (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Chris Sorensen

Topic

Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Deep Learning

Subheadline

'Godfather of AI' asks: Will Digital Intelligence Replace Biological Intelligence?

Does artificial intelligence actually understand? Would knowing more about its inner workings help to keep it in check? Could AI come up with the law of gravity if it hadn’t yet been devised?

These were among the questions that professors and students put to Geoffrey Hinton during a recent event at the �r��’s 1,730-seat Convocation Hall.

The �r�� University Professor emeritus of computer science and “godfather of AI” was there to deliver an academic talk about – and take queries on – the key differences between biological and digital intelligences, whether large language models such as ChatGPT understand what they are doing and the existential risks posed by unfettered development of the technology he helped create.

“My guess is that they will take over – they'll be much, much more intelligent than people ever were,” said Hinton, who added that humanity was likely “just a passing stage” in intelligence’s evolution.

“That's my best guess and I hope I'm wrong.”

The Oct. 27. event was co-hosted by �r��’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science in collaboration with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Cosmic Future Initiative.

Hinton’s talk came amid a flurry of AI-related developments. Three days earlier, Hinton, fellow Turing Award-winner Yoshua Bengio and 22 other AI experts, including �r�� professors Gillian Hadfield, Tegan Maharaj and Sheila McIlraith, released a paper calling for governments and Big Tech firms to take action on the issue, including by devoting one-third of their AI research and development budgets to AI safety. And on Oct. 30, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order on Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence.

Hinton took questions from audience members, many of them professors and students (photo by Johnny Guatto)

“AI is poised to transform how we live and work,” said Professor Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science, after she summarized the seminal work Hinton did on deep learning neural networks with the help of his graduate students.

“At this pivotal moment when we consider the opportunities and risks of AI, who better to guide us in this conversation than Dr. Hinton himself?”

Hinton, who is also a cognitive scientist, explained why he began sounding the alarm about AI earlier this year after spending decades developing the technology to better understand how the human mind works. In short: It is the rapid advances in large language models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s PaLM coupled with the scaling advantages that digital intelligences enjoy due to their ability to be copied and share information.

And he warned that neural networks’ learning capacity is likely to grow even further as more sources of information, including video, are incorporated into their training. “They could also learn much faster if they manipulated the physical world,” he said.

He finished his presentation by suggesting AI chatbots may even be capable of subjective experience – a concept that is tied up with ideas about consciousness and sentience. “The reason I believe that is because I think people are wrong in their analysis of what subjective experience is,” he said.

Left to right: Sheila McIlraith, Geoffrey Hinton, Gillian Hadfield and Melanie Woodin (photo by Johnny Guatto)

The talk was followed by a lengthy Q-and-A session co-ordinated by McIlraith, a professor in the department of computer science and a faculty member at the Vector Institute, where Hinton is chief scientific adviser. McIlraith said she hoped the event would inspire attendees to “help chart a course toward a future where digital and biological intelligence both enrich the human experience.”

Scholars – both professors and students – in fields ranging from philosophy to cognition probed Hinton’s thinking and, in some cases, his conclusions.

Shalev Lifshitz, a fourth-year undergraduate student in computer science who is doing AI research in McIlraith’s group at �r�� and the Vector Institute, got into a back-and-forth discussion with Hinton about whether tools like ChatGPT ever truly understand what they are doing (Hinton says yes).

“I’m on the fence – I was on the fence before – but I thought he made very interesting points,” Lifshitz said immediately following the event. “I think it depends on what the definition of ‘understanding’ is. I’m not clear on that yet.”

Others, like Jennifer Nagel, a professor in the department of philosophy at �r�� Mississauga, wondered if future AI might find us interesting or special “in a way that would make the best and brightest artificial intelligences take our side.”

Scholars in fields ranging from philosophy to cognition probed Hinton’s thinking during the Q-and-A (photo by Johnny Guatto)

“I mean, for me to be an interesting conversational partner with you right now, I don't even have to be smarter than you … I just have to have some knowledge that you don't have – or even just some way of looking at a problem that you find interesting,” she said.

Hinton was also asked to give advice to students studying in the field.

“Work on AI safety,” he said, noting that top researchers such as OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, a �r�� alumnus, and Roger Grosse and David Duvenaud – both associate professors of computer science at the university and Vector Institute faculty members – are all working on the subject.

For many, the event was simply a rare chance to hear directly from a world-renowned researcher whose work has already forever changed our lives.

Guijin Li, a PhD student in biomedical engineering, said she is really interested in Hinton’s thoughts on AI development and jumped at the chance to hear him in person.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

—with files from Mariam Matti

Geoffrey Hinton to give scholarly talk on whether AI will eclipse human intelligence

lanthierj — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 14:52:19 +0000

Geoffrey Hinton to give scholarly talk on whether AI will eclipse human intelligence

lanthierj Tue, 10/24/2023 - 10:52

Cutline

Geoffrey Hinton (photo by Polina Teif)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Department of Computer Science

Geoffrey Hinton

Students

After capturing the world’s attention with his warnings about the existential risks posed by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, Geoffrey Hinton will be engaging directly with researchers and scholars at a �r�� event.

A �r�� University Professor emeritus who is often referred to as “the godfather of AI,” Hinton will tackle the question “Will digital intelligence replace biological intelligence?” during an academic talk at Convocation Hall on Oct. 27. (Tickets to the in-person event are sold out, but a recording will be shared publicly at a later date).

His lecture will be followed by a Q-and-A session co-ordinated by Sheila McIlraith, a professor in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science who is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair and an associate director at �r��’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

The session will give Hinton an opportunity to directly engage with researchers and scholars from across the university regarding the revolutionary technology he helped create.

“AI is re-shaping the way we live, work and interact with each other,” says McIlraith. “Given the current public discourse about AI, it’s particularly important that scholars across disciplines learn from each other and engage in an informed exchange of views regarding the societal implications of this transformative technology.”

�r�� provides an ideal forum for such scholarly discourse, she adds, because of �r��’s historical role in the development of AI, the “breadth and depth” of expertise at the university and the city of Toronto’s position as a global hub of AI research and development.

"The conversation around AI is no longer housed in the computer science lab or within the offices of Big Tech. It needs to be multidisciplinary to advance our collective understanding of the opportunities and the potential risks so we can work to avoid the risks while benefiting from all that AI has to offer.”

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science are co-hosting Hinton’s talk in collaboration with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Cosmic Future Initiative at the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Finding ChatGPT: �r�� grad's startup helps detect AI's fingerprints

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 19:59:50 +0000

Finding ChatGPT: �r�� grad's startup helps detect AI's fingerprints

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 10/18/2023 - 15:59

Cutline

Alex Cui co-founded GPTZero just a few months before finishing his master’s degree in �r��’s Faculty of Arts & Science (photo by Kemeisha McDonald)

David Goldberg

Topic

Creative Destruction Lab

Subheadline

Co-founded by Alex Cui last year, GPTZero has already raised US$3.5 million

With the ink barely dry on his master’s degree from the �r��, Alex Cui is tackling a towering issue spawned by the recent revolution in artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT: How to tell if written content is generated by person or machine?

Enter Cui’s startup GPTZero. It analyzes patterns in writing, using sentence length and syntax to identify the likelihood text was generated by AI.

“GPTZero has a lot of imagination and potential in a future where AI is everywhere and it’s rampant,” says Cui, who studied computer science as a master’s student in the Faculty of Arts & Science and graduated in June.

"We haven't even really cracked the surface of what we could do.”

Cui co-founded GPTZero with Edward Tian last January – just a few weeks after ChatGPT went public and triggered a torrent of questions about academic integrity and authenticity – and has already drawn the attention of Silicon Valley investors, raising more than US$3.5-million to date.

As institutions around the world grapple with the impact of generative AI, �r�� has advised faculty to be clear with students about whether AI is permitted in their classrooms and actively discourages the use of all AI detectors, many of which are still in development, in favour of traditional methods of assessing students’ work.

Read a Q-and-A with Susan McCahan on �r��’s approach to AI in the classroom

Alex Cui launched GPTZero with Princeton University grad Edward Tian in January 2023 (supplied image)

Cui’s fascination with AI began at �r�� Schools – an independent secondary school affiliated with �r�� that Tian also attended before going to Princeton University – and at �r��’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s renowned DEEP Summer Academy. His early affiliation with the university gave him regular access to lectures by �r�� faculty, who, even a decade ago, urged Cui and his classmates to learn AI skills as soon as possible.

After high school, Cui earned his bachelor’s degree from the California Institute of Technology, but kept his Toronto connections. As an undergrad, he interned with one of the world’s leading experts on self-driving cars, �r��’s Raquel Urtasun, professor in the department of computer science and co-founder of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

When Cui returned to �r��, Urtasun supervised his master’s thesis, which included writing code for the Waabi self-driving truck.

“�r�� is one of the world leaders in machine learning,” says Cui. “There's no other ecosystem in the industry that combines AI innovation, commercialization and research partnerships.”

As GPTZero’s chief technology officer, Cui is overseeing fresh innovations, including plugins for Microsoft and Google products that help users detect AI text in any document or on any website.

Cui sees GPTZero offering immense value for several sectors, including publishing. He says the volume of author submissions is growing exponentially, especially with AI-driven content. Software like his could help editors determine what’s been written authentically, and how to take the writing to the next level.

Cui continues to be supported by �r�� and its partners. GPTZero recently started consulting with the Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School of Management and is also a member of the Vector Institute’s FastLane program, which advances AI adoption for Canadian startups and scaleups.

"Alex is an exceptional and experienced researcher and builder. His accomplishments speak for themselves. He is humble, knowledgeable and great to work with,” says Vector’s Junid Ebadi, the FastLane program’s business analyst.

"GPTZero is a fast-growing, well-resourced and driven company. They have been great partners for us, and we are happy to support them in their journey.”

Cui hopes his story will ease the stress of aspiring startup founders.

“It's not as scary as you think,” he says. “Especially in AI right now, a lot of people want to make bets on promising ideas, and I think if you are a talented individual solving a pressing issue, there's a good chance you can get some investors to fund your ideas.”

Despite the attention from media and investors, Cui is staying humble and focused on remaining a leader in AI detection.

“We have people who are betting on us, but I wouldn't say we're proven yet. To build a sustainable business, you can't just be a flash in the pan. We're still very much in the mindset that we are priming ourselves to go up against some stiff competition. We’re not going to take any liberties.”

Geoffrey Hinton and Fei-Fei Li draw thousands to talk about responsible AI development

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 13:47:50 +0000

Geoffrey Hinton and Fei-Fei Li draw thousands to talk about responsible AI development

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 10/06/2023 - 09:47

Cutline

AI luminaries Fei-Fei Li and Geoffrey Hinton spoke about the past, present and future of artificial intelligence development at a Radical Ventures event hosted by �r�� at the MaRS Discovery District (photo by Polina Teif)

Chris Sorensen

Topic

Current Students

Geoffrey Hinton

Meric Gertler

Research & Innovation