Noteworthy happenings in the world of SIAI

Overview

2011 has been a busy year for Singularity Institute. We held two small conferences in Salt Lake City, conducted a week-long Rationality Minicamp and nine week Rationality Boot Camp in Berkeley, established the Research Associates program, have given presentations at over a dozen meetings and conferences, published an accessible Singularity FAQ, and engaged in academic outreach through collaboration and websites such as IntelligenceExplosion.com. We also released our Strategic Plan which outlines our goals for 2011-2012. These include developing our Friendly AI research program in pursuit of our core mission, expanding the rationality community, bringing on new Research Associates, and holding Singularity Summit events in more venues worldwide.

You can always stay up to date on the latest news at Singularity Institute at the Singularity Institute Blog.

Singularity Summit 2011

Registration for this event is open now! Register promptly to ensure seating.

https://www.singularitysummit.com/registration/

The Singularity Summit 2011 will be held at the 92nd St. Y in New York City on October 15-16, starting at 9AM. The event, which has been covered by top-tier publications such as TIME magazine and Scientific American, will explore the historic victory of the IBM computer Watson in a match of Jeopardy! earlier this year. Ken Jennings, who won 74 consecutive matches of Jeopardy in 2004 only to lose to the Watson computer in a decisive match in 2011, will keynote, along with Ray Kurzweil, the acclaimed futurist and inventor whose name is synonymous with the Singularity and advanced artificial intelligence. Luminaries in business, science, technology, and public policy will present: economist Tyler Cowen, neuroscientist Christof Koch, roboticist Robin Murphy, skeptic Michael Shermer, cosmologist Max Tegmark, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, television personality Jason Silva, and many more!

For an official press release describing the event, visit PRWeb. To register, visit the following link:

https://www.singularitysummit.com/registration/

The price goes up $100 at the end of this month, so register now!

Companies and organizations interested in sponsoring the Summit, and receiving extensive promotion and privileges in return, should contact SIAI officer Amy Willey at admin@singinst.org.

New York Academy of Sciences Speaker Series: “Being Human in the 21st Century”

Our partners at the New York Academy of Sciences are holding an event series from September 6th to February 15th which will explore issues of interest to Singularity Institute supporters and Singularity Summit enthusiasts. The first event, on September 6th, will feature Joshua Foer, author of the best-selling book, Moonwalking with Einstein, that explores the limits of human memory. This event will provide an opportunity for Singularity Summit attendees in the New York area to get to know each other prior to the Singularity Summit conference, and to discuss issues around what it means to be human in the 21st Century.

You can register for the NYAS speaker series here:

http://www.nyas.org/beinghuman

Singularity FAQ Released

The Singularity Institute published a Singularity FAQ to clarify basic issues related to Singularity and our mission, answering questions like “How Likely is an Intelligence Explosion?” and “What is Friendly AI?” The Singularity FAQ provides both the basics for those new to the Singularity Institute’s work, and more detailed answers for those already familiar. After reading Singularity FAQ, please tell us: what did you think? We welcome feedback, suggestions, and dialogue from everyone.

Along the same lines, we recently put up IntelligenceExplosion.com as a collection of references to the intelligence explosion concept.

Research Associates Program

On July 22nd we announced the new Research Associates Program. Research associates are chosen for their excellent thinking ability and their passion for our core mission. Research associates are not salaried staff, but we encourage their Friendly AI-related research outputs by, for example, covering their travel costs for conferences at which they present academic work relevant to our mission.

Our five Research Associates are:

Daniel Dewey, an AI researcher, holds a B.S. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He recently presented his paper ‘Learning What to Value’ at the AGI-11 conference in August.

Vladimir Nesov, a decision theory researcher, holds an M.S. in applied mathematics and physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He has worked on Wei Dai’s updateless decision theory, in pursuit of one of the Singularity Institute’s core research goals: that of developing a ‘reflective decision theory.’

Joshua Fox studies the theory of superintelligence, developing models of agents with greater than human optimization power. He has served as a software architect at various start-ups and growth companies, and now works at IBM leading the development of a software product. He holds a BA summa cum laude in mathematics from Brandeis University and a PhD from Harvard University.

Steve Rayhawk is a researcher interested in applying computational Bayesian decision theory to problems in technological forecasting, risk management policy, and social epistemology. He holds a degree from the mathematics program of the UC Santa Barbara College of Creative Studies.

Peter de Blanc, an AI researcher, holds an M.A. in mathematics from Temple University. He has written several papers on goal systems for decision-theoretic agents, including ‘Convergence of Expected Utility for Universal AI’ and ‘Ontological Crises in Artificial Agents’ Value Systems.’

We’re excited to welcome Daniel, Vladimir, Joshua, Steve, and Peter to our Research Associates team!

Volunteers Program Goes Public at www.SingularityVolunteers.org!

Do you want to volunteer for Singularity Institute? Now it’s easier than ever! Our newly re-vamped volunteer website has now been made public and offers dozens of opportunities for involvement. Check out www.SingularityVolunteers.org today to see how you can help Singularity Institute work towards a positive Singularity from anywhere in the world.

Thank you for your support of Singularity Institute in pursuit of our mission for a beneficial Singularity.

http://singinst.org