Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus

Leah Cowen

Wesley Hall

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Department of Computer Science

CIFAR

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Subheadline

The 2024 co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics - known to many as the "godfather of AI" - was honoured at an event attended by a who's who of the Toronto research community

There were standing ovations, peals of laughter and even a few tears as the University of Toronto welcomed Geoffrey Hinton back to campus after he won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics.

A University Professor Emeritus of computer science, Hinton traded the “cheap hotel room in California,” where he received the life-changing news, for an emotional reception in the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus’s airy event hall.

The Oct. 10 event drew ��οleaders, supporters, dignitaries and other luminaries. They included Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, University Professor Emeritus John Polanyi, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986, and Massey College Principal James Orbinski, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Doctors Without Borders in 1999.

Several of Hinton’s many collaborators and proteges also attended the event – not to mention students who were simply eager to catch a glimpse of the “godfather of AI.”

Hinton chats with ��οScarborough Professor David Fleet and Google Research Scientists Sara Sabour and Daniel Watson (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Though sleep deprived, Hinton regaled the audience with fond recollections of his early years as an AI researcher, snapshots of his trademark dry humour and warm expressions of gratitude for mentors, collaborators and, of course, his many students.

“I’ve been blessed to have brilliant graduate students and post-docs,” Hinton said.

“I had a principle when selecting graduate students: ‘If they’re not smarter than me, what’s the point?’ And I’ve had quite a number of graduate students who were smarter than me.

“They did things I wouldn’t have been able to do, so I’d like to thank them.”

He said two figures in particular played a huge role in the work that led to his Nobel Prize, which he shared with Princeton University’s John J. Hopfield. The first was Terry Sejnowsky, a computational neuroscientist and former student of Hopfield’s, who worked with Hinton on Boltzmann machines – a period Hinton described as “the most happy research time of my life.”

He also praised the contributions of the late David Rumelhart, a psychologist at Stanford University, who worked with him to develop backpropagation algorithms, a key breakthrough.

“[He] should have won the Nobel Prize,” Hinton said. “But unfortunately, Dave got a horrible brain disease and he died quite young.” (The Nobel organization doesn’t award the honour posthumously).

Hinton poses for a picture with Assistant Professor Chris Maddison, who was one of the last graduate students Hinton supervised (photo by Mac Pattanasuttinont)

Chris Maddison joined Hinton’s research group as an undergraduate and was one of the last students he supervised. Now an assistant professor in U of T’s departments of computer science and statistical sciences in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Maddison lauded Hinton as “a steadfast mentor and supporter who saw strength in me that I didn’t see” and said one of his greatest attributes was his sheer enthusiasm.

“No matter what’s going on, you can find him in the lab on Sundays at 8 p.m. playing with his MATLAB scripts like a child playing with Legos,” Maddison said. “He never lost that child-like sense of wonder that buoyed him and the group.”

��οPresident Meric Gertler said, via video message from Indonesia, where he was on university business, that Hinton is “one of the great minds of the 21st century” (photo by Johnny Guatto)

��οPresident Meric Gertler, who was in Indonesia on university business when the prize was announced, hailed Hinton in a video message as “one of the great minds of the 21st century” and someone who “literally created new ways of thinking about thinking and learning.”

He noted that Hinton’s AI leadership extends to the pressing question of responsible and safe development of the technology.

“With his Nobel win, he’s now perfectly positioned to amplify this concern on a world stage.” President Gertler said.

Hinton shares a laugh with University Professor Molly Shoichet of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering (photo by Johnny Guatto)

The event’s guest list served as a reminder of Hinton’s outsized influence on the research community in Toronto and beyond, drawing key figures from: the Vector Institute, where Hinton is co-founder and chief scientific adviser; the Schwartz Reisman Institute of Technology and Society, where he sits on the advisory board; and CIFAR (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research), where Hinton is an adviser and longtime fellow.

Hinton poses for a photo with Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives, reminded the accomplished audience that Hinton’s historic achievement – both the Nobel Prize and the AI revolution he helped spark – was the result of years toiling in an “unpromising backwater” of AI research.

“It is tempting to think that it happened almost overnight, but it didn’t,” Cowen said.

University Professors Emeriti – and fellow Nobel Prize-winners – Geoffrey Hinton and John Polanyi have their photo taken together (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Hinton took time to reflect on periods of personal struggle and tragedy – and thank those who helped him in his hour of need.

When his wife had an incurable form of cancer, he recalled how ��οPresident Emeritus David Naylor, a physician, medical researcher and former dean of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, carried out research on a possible alternative treatment that was being explored – incorporating input from top medical experts – and presented him with a report of his findings.

“He’s a tremendous human being,” Hinton said of Naylor, who was in the audience.

Hinton shares a moment with ��οPresident Emeritus David Naylor (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Hinton also recalled how, when his first wife became ill in 1993 – also with cancer – his post-doctoral trainee Peter Dayan, now a director at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, stepped in to advise Hinton’s graduate students, giving him time to care for his ailing spouse.

“At times like this, you remember the people who helped you most when things were very difficult,” Hinton said.

He later pointed out that Dayan went on to supervise one of this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Demis Hassabis, joking that this made Dayan “the meat in a Nobel sandwich.”

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada was lucky to have Hinton, who was born in the U.K., and thanked his daughter for sharing her father with the country, with science and the world (photo by Johnny Guatto)

For Minister Freeland, Hinton’s award showcased the value of ideas and of fundamental research. She said Hinton’s Nobel Prize sent waves of pride across Canada, which she said was “lucky as a country” that Hinton arrived on its shores back in 1987.

“Geoff shows that you can be a really brilliant intellectual and also a really great human being who cares about his community and his country,” Freeland said. “I am constantly struck by how Geoff thinks about the bigger implications of his ideas and how Geoff thinks about really wanting to make Canada and the world a better place.”

Hinton chats with Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science, who thanked him for his friendship and mentorship – and his dedication to science and scholarship (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Following the program – which also featured remarks by ��οChancellor Wes Hall, Faculty of Arts & Science Dean Melanie Woodin and Christine Szustaczek, U of T’s vice-president, communications – Hinton mingled with members of the audience, shook hands with students and caught up with former colleagues and trainees.

Clockwise from top left: Christine Szustaczek, Wes Hall, Chris Maddison, Leah Cowen, Geoffrey Hinton and Melanie Woodin (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Brendan Frey, professor in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and CEO of AI-powered therapeutics startup Deep Genomics, said he was one of many who earned his PhD under Hinton’s supervision.

“I think of Geoff as the father of a community that includes myself, other graduate students and all the people who didn’t believe but then came to believe – and he inspired all of us,” said Frey, who shared a hug with his former supervisor following the event.

“I’m really happy for him.”

��οexperts tackle questions about AI safety, ethics during panel discussion

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 18:33:43 +0000

��οexperts tackle questions about AI safety, ethics during panel discussion

rahul.kalvapalle Wed, 10/02/2024 - 14:33

Cutline

From left: U of T's Roger Grosse, Sedef Kocak, Sheila McIlraith and Karina Vold take part in a panel discussion on AI safety (photo by Duane Cole)

Kyle Coulter

Jovana Jankovic

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

The Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology

Department of Computer Science

Centre for Ethics

Department of Philosophy

Victoria College

Subheadline

"We should be building AI systems that promote human flourishing – that allow human beings to live with dignity and purpose, and to be valued contributors to society”

What does safe artificial intelligence look like? Could AI go rogue and pose an existential threat to humanity? How have media portrayals of AI influenced people’s perceptions of the technology’s benefits and risks?

These were among the pressing questions tackled by four experts at the University of Toronto and its partner institutions – in disciplines ranging from computer science to philosophy – during a recent panel discussion on AI safety.

Sheila McIlraith, professor in U of T’s department of computer science at the Faculty of Arts & Science and Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, said the notion of AI safety evokes different things to different people.

“Computer scientists often think about safety critical systems – the types of systems that we’ve built to send astronauts to the moon or control our nuclear power plants – but AI safety is actually quite different,” said McIlraith, an associate director at the U of T’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI).

“For me personally, I have a higher bar, and I really think we should be building AI systems that promote human flourishing – that allow human beings to live with dignity and purpose, and to be valued contributors to society.”

The event, hosted by SRI in partnership with the Vector Institute, the Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology, the Centre for Ethics and Victoria College, invited McIlraith and her fellow panelists to discuss how AI technologies can be aligned with human values in an increasingly automated world.

They also discussed how risks surrounding the technology can be mitigated in different sectors.

Karina Vold, the event’s moderator, underscored the challenge of building safe AI systems in an uncertain world (photo by Duane Cole)

Moderator, Karina Vold, assistant professor in the Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology in the Faculty of Arts & Science, noted that because AI systems operate “in a world filled with uncertainty and volatility, the challenge of building safe and reliable AI is not easy and mitigation strategies vary widely.”

She proceeded to ask the panel to share their thoughts on the portrayal of AI in popular culture.

“The media devotes more attention to different aspects of AI – the social, philosophical, maybe even psychological,” said Sedef Kocak, director of AI professional development at the Vector Institute.

“These narratives are important to help show the potential fears, as well as the positive potential of the technology.”

The discussion touched on several topics related to AI safety (photo by Duane Cole)

Roger Grosse, associate professor in U of T’s department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and a founding member of the Vector Institute, said that safety concerns around AI are not merely rooted in science and pop culture, but also in philosophy.

“Many people think that the public’s concerns regarding AI risks come from sci-fi, but I think the early reasoning regarding AI risks actually has its roots in philosophy,” said Grosse, who also holds Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society.

“If we’re trying to reason about AI systems that don’t yet exist, we don’t have the empirical information, and don’t yet know what their design would be, what we can do is come up with various thought experiments. For example, what if we designed an AI that has some specific role, and all of the actions that it takes are in service of the role?

“For the last decade, a lot of the reasons for being concerned about the long-term existential risks really came from this careful philosophical reasoning.”

The discussion also touched on the dangers of AI models misaligning themselves, how to guard against bias in the training of large language models, and how to ensure that AI models with potentially catastrophic capabilities are safeguarded.

“This [safeguarding] is an area where new research ideas and principles will be required to make the case,” said Grosse. “Developers saying, ‘Trust us’ is not sufficient. It’s not a good foundation for policy.”

Despite addressing topics surrounding potential harms and risks of AI, the panelists also shared their optimism about how AI can be wielded for the greater good – with Grosse noting AI offers the promise of making knowledge more widely accessible, and Kocak focusing on the myriad benefits for industries.

Watch the Sept. 10 conversation below:

AI safety, cybersecurity experts take on key roles at Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:18:33 +0000

AI safety, cybersecurity experts take on key roles at Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/14/2024 - 11:18

Cutline

From left to right: David Duvenaud and Roger Grosse have been appointed Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society; David Lie has been appointed director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (supplied images)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

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 University of Toronto’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 ��οare 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 U of T’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 University of Toronto 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 U of T 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 U of T, 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 ��οto 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 5: This Is Not Real

mattimar — Thu, 23 May 2024 19:33:08 +0000

What Now? AI, Episode 5: This Is Not Real mattimar Thu, 05/23/2024 - 15:33

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Political Science

Artificial intelligence presents new opportunities to strengthen democracy even as it threatens to cast a shadow over election integrity and further the spread of misinformation.

In the fifth episode of What Now? AI, University of Toronto hosts Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan are joined by experts Harper Reed and Peter Loewen, who is also from U of T, to explore the impact of AI on the political realm.

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

Loewen, director of U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and a professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, explains how AI removes the human touch from politics, potentially making the public uneasy.

“We still don't like the fact that it might be a machine that we're talking to,” said Loewen, who is also the associate director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

“But then if you layer on this dimension of not knowing if this is actually the campaign that’s doing it, I think that’s probably orders of magnitude worse because what it does is it takes us from the realm of kind of feeling uneasy about something into feeling like this thing is corrupted.”

Reed, meanwhile, spoke about his experience as the chief technology officer on former U.S. president Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012.

“The technology we built was not about convincing someone at the time that Mitt Romney was a bad person or a good person,” said Reed during a conversation with Coleman about AI and democracy that was filmed live at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society’s annual conference Absolutely Interdisciplinary, a portion of which was used in the podcast episode.

“The tech was more about making sure you got to vote.”

When asked about the biggest threats to AI and democracy, Reed emphasized that he is less worried about the technology itself and more with ensuring it’s beneficial to societal use.

“I’m worried about who has access to it and how they are using it.”

About the hosts:

Beth Coleman is an associate professor at ��οMississauga’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 U of T’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).

Note: The artwork in the background of Peter Loewen’s interview belong to the Mirvish Family’s private collection. The large image, titled Floating Free, is by K.M. Graham. The smaller image is untitled and by the same artist.

��οinitiative encourages computer science students to incorporate ethics into their work

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 19:22:07 +0000

��οinitiative encourages computer science students to incorporate ethics into their work

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/26/2024 - 15:22

Cutline

(photo by urbazon/Getty Images)

Krystle Hewitt

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Subheadline

Total enrolment in courses featuring Embedded Ethics Education Initiative modules exceeded 8,000 students this year

Computer science students at the University of Toronto are learning how to incorporate ethical considerations into the design and development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence with the help of a unique undergraduate initiative.

The Embedded Ethics Education Initiative (E3I) aims to provide students with the ability to critically assess the societal impacts of the technologies they will be designing and developing throughout their careers. That includes grappling with issues such as AI safety, data privacy and misinformation.

Program co-creator Sheila McIlraith, a professor in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and an associate director at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI), says E3I aims to help students “recognize the broader ramifications of the technology they’re developing on diverse stakeholders, and to avoid or mitigate any negative impact.”

First launched in 2020 as a two-year pilot program, the initiative is a collaborative venture between the department of computer science and SRI in association with the department of philosophy. It integrates ethics modules into select undergraduate computer science courses – and has reached thousands of ��οstudents in this academic year alone.

Malaikah Hussain is one of the many ��οstudents who has benefited from the initiative. As a first-year student enrolled in CSC111: Foundations of Computer Science II, she participated in an E3I module that explored how a data structure she learned about in class laid the foundation of a contact tracing system and raised ethical issues concerning data collection.

“The modules underlined how the software design choices we make extend beyond computing efficiency concerns to grave ethical concerns such as privacy,” says Hussain, who is now a third-year computer science specialist.

Hussain adds that the modules propelled her interest in ethics and computing, leading her to pursue upper year courses on the topic. During a subsequent internship, she organized an event about the ethics surrounding e-waste disposal and the company’s technology life cycle.

“The E3I modules have been crucial in shaping my approach to my studies and work, emphasizing the importance of ethics in every aspect of computing,” she says.

The program, which initially reached 400 students, has seen significant growth over the last four years. This academic year alone, total enrolment in computer science courses with E3I programming has exceeded 8,000 students. Another 1,500 students participated in E3I programming in courses outside computer science.

Clockwise from top left: Steven Coyne, Diane Horton, David Liu and Sheila McIlraith (supplied images)

In recognition of the program’s impact on the undergraduate student learning experience, McIlraith and her colleagues – Diane Horton and David Liu, a professor and associate professor, teaching stream, respectively, in the department of computer science, and Steven Coyne, an assistant professor who is jointly appointed to the departments of computer science and philosophy – were recently recognized with the 2024 Northrop Frye Award (Team), one of the prestigious ��οAlumni Association Awards of Excellence.

Horton, who leads the initiative’s assessment efforts, points to the team’s recently published paper showing that after participating in modules in only one or two courses, students are inspired to learn more about ethics and are benefiting in the workplace.

“We have evidence that they are better able to identify ethical issues arising in their work, and that the modules help them navigate those issues,” she says.

Horton adds that the findings build on earlier assessment work showing that after experiencing modules in only one course, students became more interested in ethics and tech, and more confident in their ability to deal with ethical issues they might encounter.

The team says the initiative’s interdisciplinary nature is key to delivering both a curriculum and experience with an authentic voice, giving instructors and students the vocabulary and depth of knowledge to engage on issues such as privacy, well-being and harm.

“As a philosopher and ethicist, I love teaching in a computer science department,” says Coyne. “My colleagues teach me about interesting ethical problems that they’ve found in their class material, and I get to reciprocate by finding distinctions and ideas that illuminate those problems. And we learn a lot from each other – intellectually and pedagogically – when we design a module for that class together.”

E3I is founded upon three key principles: teach students how – not what – to think; encourage ethics-informed design choices as a design principle; and make discussions safe, not personal.

“Engaging with students and making them feel safe, not proselytizing, inviting the students to participate is especially important,” says Liu.

The modules support this type of learning environment by using stakeholders with fictional character profiles that include names, pictures and a backstory.

“Fictional stakeholders help add a layer of distance so students can think through the issues without having to say, ‘This is what I think,’” Horton says. “Stakeholders also increase their awareness of the different kinds of people who might be impacted.”

McIlraith adds that having students advocate for an opinion that is not necessarily their own encourages empathy, while Liu notes that many have a “real hunger” to learn about the ethical considerations of their work.

“An increasing number of students are thinking, ‘I want to be trained as a computer scientist and I want to use my skills after graduation,’ but also ‘I want to do something that I think will make a positive impact on the world,’” he says.

Together, the E3I team works with course instructors to develop educational modules that tightly pair ethical concepts with course-specific technical material. In an applied software design course, for example, students learn about accessible software and disability theory; in a theoretical algorithms course, they learn about algorithmic fairness and distributive justice; and in a game design course, they learn about addiction and consent.

Steve Engels, a computer science professor, teaching stream, says integrating an ethics module about addiction into his fourth-year capstone course on video game design felt like a natural extension of his lecture topic on ludology – in particular, the psychological techniques used to make games compelling – instead of something that felt artificially inserted into the course.

“Project-based courses can sometimes compel students to focus primarily on the final product of the course, but this module provided an opportunity to pause and reflect on what they were doing and why,” Engels says. “It forced them to confront their role in the important and current issue of gaming addiction, so they would be more aware of the ethical implications of their future work and thus be better equipped to handle it.”

By next year, each undergraduate computer science student will encounter E3I modules in at least one or two courses every year throughout their program. The team is also exploring the adoption of the E3I model in other STEM disciplines, from ecology to statistics. Beyond U of T, the team plans to share their expertise with other Canadian universities that are interested in developing a similar program.

“This initiative is having a huge impact,” McIlraith says. “You see it in the number of students we’re reaching and in our assessment results. But it’s more than that – we’re instigating a culture change.”

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

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Alumni

Startups

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 University of Toronto 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 ��οMississauga, 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 U of T.

“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:

What Now? AI, Episode 3: Innovation for Good

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 20:47:11 +0000

What Now? AI, Episode 3: Innovation for Good Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/18/2024 - 16:47

Topic

Unity Health

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Startups

While the news headlines about AI often focus on dangers and risks, the potential for life-saving innovation in fields such as health care is huge.

In the third episode of What Now? AI, co-hosts Beth Coleman and Rahul Krishnan of the University of Toronto are joined by experts Christine Allen and Andrew Pinto to discuss AI’s potential to advance drug development and dramatically improve primary care.

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

Allen, a professor in U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and an expert in drug formulation and development, co-founded Intrepid Labs Inc. with Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a professor in the departments of chemistry and computer science in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science.

One of the first startups to emerge from the Acceleration Consortium at U of T, Intrepid Labs is accelerating pharmaceutical drug development through the integration of AI, automation and advanced computing.

“It’s this concept of using AI to explore the unexplored,” Allen says.

“What if that formulation could really transform the properties and performance of your drug is one of those unexplored formulations. That will then take that drug through clinical development smoothly and get it to patients faster, which is really the goal.”

Meanwhile, Pinto, a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and director of the Upstream Lab, Unity Health Toronto, focuses his research on addressing the social determinants of health by running clinical trials of interventions and using AI tools for surveillance of respiratory illness.

“When we started to do this work around AI in primary care, we wanted to be directed by primary care providers and patients,” says Pinto, an associate professor in the department of family and community medicine in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Reducing health-care inequities is top of mind for Pinto. His lab focuses on implementing AI to prioritize community engagement and bridge socioeconomic gaps to mitigate biases.

“We’re using these tools to look at all of the patients in a population and then focus our attention on the people who need it most.”

About the hosts:

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

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

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 University of Toronto 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 ��οMississauga’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 U of T’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).

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

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

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

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

Mariam Matti

Topic

Unity Health

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Alumni

CIFAR

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Geoffrey Hinton

Startups

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?

University of Toronto 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 ��οpodcast that launches this week.

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

An associate professor at ��οMississauga’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 U of T’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 ��οcomputer science and cognitive science alumnus.

“The What Now? AI podcast highlights the incredible researchers at the University of Toronto who are exploring the profound implications of this transformative technology,” says Leah Cowen, U of T’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.”

Four AI trends to watch in 2024

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 17:02:40 +0000

Four AI trends to watch in 2024

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 01/19/2024 - 12:02

Cutline

AI was a hot topic at this week’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (photo by Andy Barton/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Jovana Jankovic

Daniel Browne

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Global

Graduate Students

Rotman School of Management