# PIBBSS Summer Symposium 2023

Tl;dr
=====

We are pleased to invite you to the **PIBBSS Summer Symposium** where the fellows from the ‘23  fellowship program present their work. 

The symposium is taking place online, over several days in the week of **September 18th**. 

*   [Check out the **full program**,](https://www.pibbss.ai/symposium23) including brief descriptions for each talk. (You can toggle between the different days.)
*   [**Register** via this link](https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sWgfMJztSYuTVlGm0ijuTw). You will receive an email with the event link which you can use for the entire symposium. You will be able to drop into as few or as many presentations and breakout sessions as you like. 
*   [Click here](https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/3?cid=Y184MzIyZDRmYzZlZTNkNmEzYzY0MWNhZWU0MDI5NTM4YzYxZTc3M2I3OThkMTdhMmQzMzRlZjM4MGZlZGU0MTdjQGdyb3VwLmNhbGVuZGFyLmdvb2dsZS5jb20) to add the schedule to your **google calendar**.

* * *

About PIBBSS
============

[PIBBSS ](https://www.pibbss.ai/)is a research initiative aiming  to explore parallels between intelligent behavior in natural and artificial systems, and to leverage these insights towards the goal of building safe and aligned AI. 

During June-August ‘23, we ran the second iteration of our 3-month [research fellowship program](https://www.pibbss.ai/fellowship). The symposium acts as a venue to share research conducted as part of this program. 

About the symposium 
====================

The **PIBBSS Summer Symposium **is a multi-day event where PIBBSS fellows present their work.  

The event is taking place on the days of **Tuesday - Friday, Sept 19th - 22nd**, between **18:00-~21:00 CET / 9:00 - 12:00 PT / 12:00 - 15:00 ET**.

The event is set it up such that you can easily join whichever talks and breakout sessions you are most interesting in.

The program 
============

Find a **program overview** [**here**](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1viNxVB8QgwO7XFf80dbrBgdTNgn_JuRo/view?usp=drive_link)**. **

Find the [**full program** here](https://www.pibbss.ai/symposium23), including brief descriptions of each talk. 

On top of the talks, there will also be opportunities to continue the discussion with fellows at the end of each block in **speaker-specific breakout rooms**.

Talks span a wide range of **topics** in line with PIBBSS’s research mission. Some representative examples of topics include: 

*   novel avenues for interpretability 
*   naturalistic approaches to understanding the nature and emergence of agency and goal-directed behavior
*   attempts to develop a principled understanding of the dynamics emerging from multi-agent interactions in and across AI/LLM systems
*   analyses of the space of AI risks — from single to multiple agents, from misuse to structural risks, etc.
*   exploration of the potential and limits of existing legal tools for reducing catastrophic risks from AI 
*   ..and more!

The format
==========

The symposium is taking place over the course of four days, in blocks of ~4 fellows. 

Each fellow presents for a total of 30 minutes, including some time for questions. 

At the end of each block, there will be speaker-specific break-out rooms to allow for further questions and discussions.

Example day: 

| **Day 1** | *Starting time* |
| --- | --- |
| Speaker 1 | * 18:00 CEST * |
| Speaker 2 | * 18:30 CEST* |
| Speaker 3 | * 19:00 CEST* |
| Speaker 4 | * 19:30 CEST* |
| Breakout/Discussion Rooms with Speakers 1-4 (parallel) | * 20:00 CEST* * \\- 21:00 CEST* |

How to engage
=============

**Register **[here ](https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sWgfMJztSYuTVlGm0ijuTw)to receive a link to the webinar. 

The same link works for the entire symposium. This allows you to tune in for exactly those talks and breakout sessions you’re most interested in!

Find the **full program **[here](https://www.pibbss.ai/symposium23), including brief descriptions of each talk. (You can toggle between the days to discover the full program.)

If you cannot make it to a talk, worry not! Most talks will be recorded and can later be viewed at the[ PIBBSS YouTube Page](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMo5Ei9xLHbk9sqNMSH3mdQ).

Talks (overview)
================

For a full version of the agenda, including talk descriptions, see [here](https://www.pibbss.ai/symposium23). Times below are in CEST. 

Tuesday, Sep 19th
-----------------

18:00  —  Auto-Intentional Agency and AI Risk  —  **Giles Howdle**

18:30  —  Allostasis emergence of auto-intentional agency  —  **George Deane**

19:00  —  TBD  —  **Urte Laukaityte**

19:30  —  Searching For a Science of Abstraction  —  **Aysja Johnson**

20:00  —  Breakout sessions with each presenter

Wednesday, Sep 20th
-------------------

18:00  —  Agent, behave! Learning and sustaining social norms as normative equilibria  —  **Ninell Oldenburg** 

18:30  —  Detecting emergent capabilities in multi-agent AI systems  —  **Matthew Lutz**

19:00  —  An overview of AI misuse risks (and what to do about them)  —  **Sammy Martin**

19:30  —  Tort Law as a tool for mitigating catastrophic Risk from Artificial Intelligence  —  **Gabriel Weil **

20:00  —  Breakout sessions with each presenter

Thursday, Sep 21st
------------------

18:00  —  The role of model degeneracy in the dynamics of SGD  —  **Guillaume Corlour**

18:30  —  A Geometry Viewpoint for Interpretability  —  **Nishal Mainali**

19:00  —  Studying Language Model Cognition through Prompt-Engineering Experiments  —  **Eleni Angelou**

19:30  —  Breakout sessions with each presenter

Friday, Sep 22nd
----------------

18:00  —  Beyond vNM: Self-modification and Reflective Stability  —  **Cecilia Wood**

18:30  —  Constructing Logically Updateless Decision Theory  —  **Martín Soto**

19:00  —  TBD  —  **Tom Ringstrom**

19:30  —  Causal approaches to agency and directedness  —  **Brady Pelkey**

20:00  —  Breakout sessions with each presenter

* * *

We are looking forward to seeing you there!