April 2023
Received funding for project
2 Years
Project timeline
Project timeline
Type of study
Study Status
- Modeling Design
- Modeling Benchmarking
- Manuscripts Preparation
- Publication
Preventing Sociopathic Robots
Leveraging Vulnerability and Homeostasis to Encourage Prosocial Behavior in World-Modeling AI
We will run a variety of simulations to demonstrate how prosocially aligned AI may be emergently bootstrapped via vulnerable engagement (alone and in competition/collaboration with others) with an open-ended Minecraft-like virtual world.
Such environments are well-suited for training and testing for our systems, who have several planned emergent capacities: (I) Abilities for meta-learning and counterfactual modeling; (II) Vulnerability; (III) Incorporation of biologically-inspired inductive biases.
Combined with meta-learning and counterfactual modeling that can accommodate complex agent-based relationships across multiple time scales, we will demonstrate how social alignment may emerge as a kind of predictive homeostasis (i.e., allostasis, or “sociostasis”).
In close collaboration with other groups dedicated to human-centered AI, we will focus on determining the extent to which human-mimetic design may allow for the development of effective and robustly beneficial artificial intelligences.
Outcomes
2023
- Christov-Moore, L., Reggente, N., Vaccaro, A., Schoeller, F., Pluimer, B., Douglas, P. K., Iacoboni, M., Man, K., Damasio, A., & Kaplan, J. T. (2023). Preventing antisocial robots: A pathway to artificial empathy. Sci. Robot, 8, eabq3658. [PDF] [Blog Writeup]
- Safron, A., Sakthivadivel, D., Sheikhbahaee, Z., Bein, M., Razi, A., Levin, M. (2023, April). Making and Breaking Symmetries in Mind and Life. In “Making and Breaking Symmetries in Mind and Life” a special issue of Interface Focus, 13. [PDF]
- Sheikhbahaee, Z., Safron, A., Hesp, C., & Dumas, G. (2023, December). From Physics to Sentience: Deciphering the Semantics of the Free-Energy Principle and Evaluating its Claims. Physics of Life Reviews, 47, 276 – 278. [PDF]
- Christov‐Moore, L., Jinich‐Diamant, A., Safron, A., Lynch, C., & Reggente, N. (2023). Cognitive Science Below the Neck: Toward an Integrative Account of Consciousness in the Body. Cognitive Science, 47(3), e13264. [PDF] [Blog Writeup]
2022
- Christov-Moore, L., Reggente, N., Vaccaro, A., Schoeller, F., Pluimer, B., Douglas, P. K., Iacaboni, M., Kaplan, J. (2022). Are Robots Sociopaths? A Neuroscientific Approach to the Alignment Problem. Organization for Human Brain Mapping, Glasgow, Scotland. [Poster]
2023
- Moore, C. (2023, October 25-26). Emulating Entheogens for Enhancing Empathy. Compassion 2.0, San Francisco, CA. [Talk] [Supplemental]
2024
- Musser, G. (2024, March 19). The quest to build a truly intelligent machine helps us learn about our own intelligence. Scientific American.
- Ubiquity University. (2024). Humanity Rising Day 935: IACS III: Aesthetic Chills and Empathic AI [YouTube].
- Ubiquity University. (2024). Humanity Rising Day 934: IACS II: Toward a multiscale account of trust [YouTube].
2023
- Digital, O., & Lorenzo, A. D. (2023). IA boazinha: estudo sugere novo método para criar robôs com empatia. Olhar Digital. IA boazinha: estudo sugere novo método para criar robôs com empatia.
- Greengard, S. (2023). Making Empathy Artificial. Communications of the ACM.
- Atomic Podcast with Dr. Rooney Sappington. (2023). Atomic Podcast EP. 14 – Interview with Dr. Nicco Reggente and Dr. Leonardo Christov-Moore [Video]. YouTube.
- Crespi, S., Mclean, K., Lloreda, L.C. (2023). The AI special issue, adding empathy to robots, and scientists leaving Arecibo. Science.
- Fan, S. (2023). Giving AI a Sense of Empathy Could Protect Us From Its Worst Impulses. Singularity Hub.
- Yirka. B. (2023). How to give AI-based robots empathy so they won’t want to kill us. Tech Xplore.
- (2023). Giving AI a Sense of Empathy Could Protect Us From Its Worst Impulses. News Azi.
- (2023). How to give AI-based robots empathy so they won’t want to kill us. Today Headline.
July 12, 2023
Sociopathic Superintelligences, Artificial Empathy, and Robot Bodhisattvas, Oh My!
April 10, 2023
Cognitive Science Below the Neck: Toward an Integrative Account of Consciousness in the Body
Project Contributors
Funded By
