Vincent Conitzer: Getting AI systems (collectively) to behave the way we (collectively) want them to

It is often hard to get an AI system to do what someone really wants it to do -- a problem referred to as "aligning" the AI.  But even if we can solve that problem reasonably well, other problems remain.  One is the problem of accounting for multiple stakeholders: we generally want to take into account the preferences, values, or judgments of more than one party, even if they conflict with each other.  Another is the problem of multiple interacting AI systems: even if each of these systems individually is, on its own, reasonably well aligned, interactions among them can produce disastrous outcomes.  I will give an overview of these problems, and will argue that we can address them using social choice theory and game theory.  (No previous background required in any of this.)

Vincent Conitzer is Professor of Computer Science (with affiliate/courtesy appointments in Machine Learning, Philosophy, and the Tepper School of Business) at Carnegie Mellon University, where he directs the Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab (FOCAL). He is also Head of Technical AI Engagement at the Institute for Ethics in AI, and Professor of Computer Science and Philosophy, at the University of Oxford.

Previous to joining CMU, Conitzer was the Kimberly J. Jenkins Distinguished University Professor of New Technologies and Professor of Computer Science, Professor of Economics, and Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. He received Ph.D. (2006) and M.S. (2003) degrees in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and an A.B. (2001) degree in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.

Conitzer has received the 2021 ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award, the Social Choice and Welfare Prize, a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, an NSF CAREER award, the inaugural Victor Lesser dissertation award, an honorable mention for the ACM dissertation award, and several awards for papers and service at the AAAI and AAMAS conferences. He has also been named a Guggenheim Fellow, a Sloan Fellow, a Kavli Fellow, a Bass Fellow, an ACM Fellow, a AAAI Fellow, and one of AI's Ten to Watch. He has served as program and/or general chair of the AAAI, AAMAS, AIES, COMSOC, and EC conferences. Conitzer and Preston McAfee were the founding Editors-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Economics and Computation (TEAC). With Jana Schaich Borg and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, he authored "Moral AI: And How We Get There."