Scientists and AI industry leaders will convene at Ohio State this month to explore effective ways of aligning artificial intelligence with human values and well-being.

Running July 19 to 21 in Columbus, the Mind and Machine Alignment Summit will feature lectures, a poster session, AI and virtual reality demos, and hands-on workshops for registered attendees. It will also include a free public panel on July 21 at 3:30 p.m. RSVP is required for the panel.

“Given AI’s rapidly growing power and influence, making sure it aligns with human values and interests is one of the most important problems of our age,” explained postdoctoral researcher Danica Dillion, who coordinated the summit alongside Professor Kurt Gray and Helen Devine, who manages Gray’s lab.

“And that problem has two sides: AI and people. I wanted to bring together people focused on each side of that equation in different ways.” 

The Mind and Machine Alignment Summit is co-sponsored by the Ohio State Department of Psychology and one of its interdisciplinary research initiatives, the Collaborative on the Science of Polarization and Misinformation (C-SPAM).

During the three-day event, more than 80 attendees from around the world will hear from experts across psychology, computer science, philosophy and AI policy fields, as well as from representatives at Google DeepMind and Anthropic. Fourteen researchers and practitioners selected from an open call will also give five-minute flash talks about their work. Among other topics, they will speak about AI companionship, LLM role playing games and the demographic blind spots of automated speech recognition systems.

The public panel, on the other hand, will focus on everyday questions about AI and its impact outside of research—for example, about the risks of AI acting too “human” and how it may benefit certain groups over others, but also the potential of AI technology to improve lives and have a positive impact. A discussion will follow a series of short talks by Chinasa T. Okolo, the Founder of Technecultura; Abi Olvera, Research Director at the Golden Gate Institute for AI; Steve Rathje, incoming Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University; and Michael Inzlicht, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. 

“AI will affect everyone—we’re already seeing it make huge changes in people’s lives—but the discourse around those impacts isn’t always accessible,” Dillion said. 

“We wanted to bring conversations about alignment to a broader audience and create space for the public to be part of that conversation.”

More broadly, she hopes the summit will give attendees a better grasp of current research on AI—both its promises and its limits. Likewise, she hopes it sparks new connections and collaborations among researchers.

Gray said he is proud that Ohio State is hosting the event. 

“The discussions will connect to the important work we are doing across the university, including in C-SPAM and the Translational Data Analytics Institute, and will develop insights for science and society,” he explained.

“The summit will also forge lasting collaborations, putting Ohio at the center of the conversation."

Learn more about the Mind and Machine Alignment Summit and the public panel on the event website.