Reasoning has throughout history been thought to be the preserve of humans.  But now some of us have begun to delegate tasks that ostensibly require something like reasoning to such bots as ChatGPT and Claude, supporting further developments in AI in the process. Do AI systems reason?  If not, what are they doing? What is reasoning anyway? 

Some researchers are warning that we are embarked on a trajectory that might spell doom for the human species.  Should we install guard-rails on these efforts?  If so, what form should that take?

Speakers in this workshop take up these and related questions.  Symposia are designed to inform participants about ongoing projects around the topic of AI and its containment.  And a wrap-up session will bring all speakers together for a final round of Q&A with all attendees.

Speakers include: Berit Brogaard (Miami), David Frank (UTK), Thomas Hofweber (UNC Chapel Hill), Hairong Qi (UTK), Amir Sadovnik (ORNL), Joshua Skorburg (Guelph), Mariam Thalos (UTK)

We ask that you please register for this event.

Program

Friday Nov 10

• 1pm - Lunch
• 2:30pm - Welcome: Associate Dean Liem Tran
• 3-4:30pm - Overviews of research projects: Samantha Brennan (Guelph), Joshua Skorburg (Guelph), Hairong Qi (UTK), Amir Sadovnik (UTK, ORNL), Others; chair (Mariam Thalos)
• 5-6:30pm - Reception

Saturday Nov 11

• 10-10:50am - Thomas Hofweber (UNC Chapel Hill), “Reasoning and rationality in language models” (Chair: Kaeleigh Damico)
• 11-11:50pm - Joshua Skorburg (Guelph), "Idealized Observers and the Alignment Problem" (Chair: Rooh Haghshenas)
• 12-1pm - Lunch
• 1-1:50pm - Berit Brogaard (Miami), "Probabilistic Reasoning and the Base-Rate Fallacy" (Chair: Colin Viray)
• 2-2:50pm - David Frank (UTK), “Critical Perspectives on ‘AI Ethics’” (Chair: Troy Polidori)
• 3-3:50pm - Mariam Thalos (UTK), “Reasoning and AI” (Chair: Allen Dunn)
• 4-4:30pm - coffee
• 4:30-5:45pm - Panel Discussion: Speakers (as above), plus Samantha Brennan (Guelph), Hairong Qi (UTK), Amir Sadovnik (ORNL), Michael Olson (UTK); Chair (Linh Mac)