The conference is organized by the Centre for
the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) and cosponsored
by the Future of Life Institute and
the Templeton World Charity Foundation as
part of the ‘Managing Extreme Technological
Risk’ research programme.
This conference aims to bring distinct but yet
complimentary communities together, to ask
how we can best work together and where our
efforts should be directed, over the rest of the
decade and beyond in mitigating the most
severe potential hazards from human
activities. Dedicated sessions, led by invited
speakers, will focus on artificial intelligence,
depreciation of earth systems, and
bioengineering. The opening session will give
broader consideration to how to better
combine our communities’ contributions to
efforts for the management of catastrophic
risk.
Conference Outline The past five years have seen rapid growth in a thriving set of communities – scientists and technologists in different fields, security and risk researchers, governance specialists, to name a few – united by a common interest in anticipating and mitigating the most severe potential hazards from human activities, particularly from emerging technologies.
We still have much to learn from one another, and from the lessons provided by ongoing efforts in each of these domains.
Each of the three days of the conference will focus on one of these areas:
1. Machine Intelligence: Creating a Community for Beneficial AI
2. Depreciation of Earth Systems: Biodiversity, Climate and Environmental Risks
3. Bioengineering: Lessons from Recent Cases for Building Engagement between Communities
Within each focus area we will explore three main themes:
a) Current best understanding of risks and mitigation strategies
b) Lessons from the history of engagement with these risks, in academia, industry and policy
c ) Future directions for the communities engaging with these risks.