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Atkinson Memorial Lecture 2025: "Natural Selection of Artificial Intelligence"
Organised in collaboration with the Global Priorities Institute
We study the AI control problem in the context of decentralized eco- nomic production. Profit-maximizing firms employ artificial intelligence to automate aspects of production. This creates a feedback loop whereby AI is instrumental in the production and promotion of AI itself. Just as with natural selection of organic species this introduces a new threat whereby machines programmed to distort production in favor of machines can displace those machines aligned with efficient production. We examine the extent to which competitive market forces can serve their traditional efficiency-aligning role in the face of this new threat. Our analysis high- lights the crucial role of AI transparency. When AI systems lack perfect transparency self-promoting machines destabilize any efficient allocation. The only stable competitive equilibrium distorts consumption down to catastrophic levels.
Date:
18 June 2025, 15:30
Venue:
St Cross Building, St Cross Road OX1 3UR
Venue Details:
Gulbenkian Lecture Theatre and online. Please register.
Speaker:
Jeffrey Ely (Northwestern University)
Organising department:
Department of Economics
Organiser contact email address:
gpi-office@philosophy.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?:
Required
Booking url:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/department-of-economics-university-of-oxford/atkinson-memorial-lecture-2025-with-jeffrey-ely-northwestern-university/2025-06-18/15:30/t-xmkqgmp
Cost:
Free
Audience:
Public
Editors:
Emma Heritage,
Edward Valenzano
