Technology Roulette: The Danger of the Pursuit of Technological Superiority
The pursuit of technological superiority underpins U.S. military strategy. Superiority, however, is not synonymous with security. Experience with nuclear weapons, aviation, and digital information systems should inform discussion about current efforts to control artificial intelligence (AI), synthetic biology, and autonomous systems.

Richard Danzig, author of Technology Roulette: Managing Loss of Control as Many Militaries Pursue Technological Superiority, argues that the most reasonable expectation is that the introduction of complex, opaque, novel, and interactive technologies will produce accidents, emergent effects, and sabotage. This, inevitably, results in the American national security establishment losing control of what it creates.

Richard will be joined in discussion with Allan Dafoe (Director, Center for the Governance of AI), Janina Dill (Co-Director, Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict), and Todd Hall (Associate Professor of International Relations).

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Richard Danzig has been described recently in the American press as “A giant in the military affairs/foreign policy/national security establishment” (Bloomberg) and his most recent paper has been called “brilliant” (Washington Post). His primary activities in recent years have been as a consultant to U.S. Intelligence Agencies and the Department of Defense on national security issues. He is a Senior Advisor to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Chair of the Advisory Panel for Idaho National Laboratories’ Innovation Centre, a member of the Toyota Research Institute Advisory Board and a member of the Cyber Resilience Forum of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Allan Dafoe is the Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow in the International Politics of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford. He is also Director of the Center for the Governance of AI (GovAI), at University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, which is a leading site for governance thinking about AI. Allan’s research focuses on characterizing and building the field of AI governance, and on great power cooperation and conflict around AI. For more information see: allandafoe.com

Janina Dill is the John G. Winant Associate Professor of U.S. Foreign Policy at the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) of the University of Oxford. She is also a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC). Her research concerns international law and ethics in international relations, specifically in war.

Todd Hall earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2008 and has held postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton and Harvard, as well as visiting scholar appointments at the Free University of Berlin, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the University of Tokyo. Prior to joining the University of Oxford, Prof Hall held the position of Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Toronto (2010-2013). His research interests extend to the areas of international relations theory; the intersection of emotion, affect, and foreign policy; and Chinese foreign policy.

This event is part of the Center for the Governance of AI Trinity Term Seminar Series. The Center for the Governance of AI, housed at the Future of Humanity Institute, strives to help humanity capture the benefits and mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence. Our main focus is on the political challenges arising from transformative AI: advanced AI systems whose long-term impacts may be as profound as the industrial revolution. The Center seeks to guide the development of AI for the common good by conducting research on important and neglected issues of AI governance, and advising decision makers on this research through policy engagement. For further events, register at tinyurl.com/govai-events
Date: 16 May 2019, 16:00 (Thursday, 3rd week, Trinity 2019)
Venue: Littlegate House, 16-17 St Ebbe's Street OX1 1PT
Venue Details: Future of Humanity Institute, Petrov
Speaker: Richard Danzig (Center for a New American Security)
Organising department: Faculty of Philosophy
Organiser: Markus Anderljung (Center for the Governance of AI, Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford)
Host: Markus Anderljung (Center for the Governance of AI, Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford)
Part of: Governance of AI Seminar Series
Topics:
Booking required?: Recommended
Booking url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/technology-roulette-the-danger-of-the-pursuit-of-technological-superiority-tickets-61435568439?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Markus Anderljung