Seth Baum | Global Catastrophic Risk Institute

Seth Baum at The Story Collider October 18

Post Date October 11, 2016

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Category events

If you are in New York, you can hear GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum speak in Brooklyn on October 18 at the Story Collider, an event for personal stories about science. The event has a pre-Halloween theme of fear. Baum will talk about his experience of the heated debate he sparked last year about winter-safe deterrence.

Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: Tackling AI Threats

Post Date October 06, 2016

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Author Robert de Neufville

Category articles

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum has a new article in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on how we can tackle near and far AI threats at once. The article describes the disagreement among AI experts over whether near-term or long-term AI issues are more important. It argues that the disagreement can be resolved by focusing on opportunities to address both sets of issues at the same time. The article looks specifically at ways we can address both sets of issues through social norms, technical research, and public …

October Newsletter: Society for Risk Analysis Symposium

Post Date October 03, 2016

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Author Robert de Neufville

Category newsletter

2016 Society for Risk Analysis Meeting

GCRI will lead a symposium on global catastrophic risk at the 2016 meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA), December 11-15 in San Diego. SRA is the premier academic and professional society for risk analysis. GCRI has led symposiums at SRA meetings since 2010. The 2016 GCRI symposium features five talks focused on risks from artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons.

Artificial Intelligence

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum’s paper, “On the promotion of safe and socially beneficial artificial intelligence” has been accepted for publication …

September Newsletter: Media Internship Opportunity

Post Date September 02, 2016

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Author Robert de Neufville

Category newsletter

Dear friends,

GCRI is currently recruiting for a volunteer/intern position on media engagement. We aim both to improve the quality of global catastrophic risk media coverage—including coverage of GCRI—and to help someone launch their career. The ideal fit would be a college student or recent graduate who seeks a career in global catastrophic risk in something media-related such as journalism or social science. Details can be found on GCRI’s website. We would be grateful if you would share the announcement with anyone who might be interested or apply …

Seth Baum Appointed to Advisory Board of AI & Society

Post Date August 31, 2016

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Author Robert de Neufville

Category announcement, media coverage

GCRI’s Seth Baum has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the journal AI & Society. AI & Society is an interdisciplinary journal focused on societal issues related to artificial intelligence including the design, use, management, and policy of information, communications and new media technologies, with a particular emphasis on cultural, social, cognitive, economic, ethical, and philosophical implications.

Working Paper: On the Promotion of Safe and Socially Beneficial Artificial Intelligence

Post Date July 30, 2016

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Author Seth Baum

Category artificial intelligence, working papers

GCRI is launching a working paper series with a new paper On the promotion of safe and socially beneficial artificial intelligence by Seth Baum.

Abstract
This paper discusses means for promoting artificial intelligence (AI) that is designed to be safe and beneficial for society (or simply “beneficial AI”). The promotion of beneficial AI is a social challenge because it seeks to motivate AI developers to choose beneficial AI designs. Currently, the AI field is focused mainly on building AIs that are more capable, with little regard to …

GCRI Experts Featured In Science Magazine

Post Date July 27, 2016

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Author Robert de Neufville

Category media coverage

GCRI’s Seth Baum and Dave Denkenberger are featured in an article in Science Magazine titled “Here’s how the world could end—and what we can do about it”.

Podcast: Earthquakes As Global Catastrophic Risk

Post Date July 27, 2016

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Author Robert de Neufville

Category media coverage

GCRI’s Seth Baum participated in a podcast hosted by Ariel Conn of the Future of Life Institute (FLI) on the question of whether earthquakes could be a global catastrophic risk. You can listen to the podcast here.

January-February 2014 Newsletter

Post Date February 28, 2014

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Author Seth Baum

Category newsletter

Dear friends,

2014 is shaping up to be a busy year for the GCR community. It is encouraging that GCR is getting increasing attention, and that leaders of the GCR community are getting increasing recognition for our work. I personally have been honored by several prestigious speaking opportunities and a full profile in a new Scientific American Blogs article Evaluating the Risk of Events That Could End Civilization. The speaking opportunities will send me flying around the world in March, for events in Stockholm and Tokyo. …

DHS Emerging Technologies Project

Post Date January 29, 2014

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Author Seth Baum

Category emerging technologies, law & policy

I am writing to announce a new GCRI project on risks from emerging technologies. The project is sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security under its Science & Technology Directorate Centers of Excellence, through the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), which is based at the University of Southern California.

The project’s Principal Investigator is GCRI Director of Research Tony Barrett. Contributions are also coming from our colleague Jun Zhuang, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at SUNY-Buffalo, and …

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