Researchers collaborate with Google DeepMind on artificial intelligence safety

Academics from the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), part of the Oxford Martin School, are teaming up with Google DeepMind to make artificial intelligence safer. Stuart Armstrong, the Alexander Tamas Fellow in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at FHI and Laurent Orseau, of Google DeepMind, will present their research on reinforcement learning agent interruptibility at the UAI 2016 conference in New York City later this month. Orseau and Armstrong's research explores a method to ensure that reinforcement learning agents can be repeatedly safely interrupted by human or automatic overseers. This ensures that the agents do not "learn" about these interruptions, and do not take steps to avoid or manipulate the interruptions. Interruptibility has several advantages as an approach over previous methods of control.