Stuart Russell is a distinguished artificial intelligence researcher, a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, an Adjunct Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, and leads the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at UC Berkeley. Along with Peter Norvig, Stuart is the author of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, the most widely used textbook on artificial intelligence. In his most recent book, Human Compatible: AI and the Problem of Control, Stuart proposes a fundamentally new approach to developing AI. In this interview, Stuart warns that AI is reshaping society in unintended ways. For example, social media content selection algorithms that choose what individuals watch and read do not even know that human beings exist. As AI becomes more capable, he suggests that we are going to see bigger failures unless we change the way we think about AI altogether. Stuart argues that to ensure AI is provably beneficial for human beings, we must design machines to be inherently uncertain about human preferences. This way, we can ensure they are humble, altruistic, and committed to pursuing our objectives even as they set their own goals. We also discuss why AI needs regulation similar to civil engineering and medicine, the impact AI is going to make over the next decade, autonomous vehicles, and a variety of other topics.

Stuart Russell is a distinguished artificial intelligence researcher, a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, an Adjunct Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, and leads the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at UC Berkeley. Along with Peter Norvig, Stuart is the author of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, the most widely used textbook on artificial intelligence. In his most recent book, Human Compatible: AI and the Problem of Control, Stuart proposes a fundamentally new approach to developing AI. In this interview, Stuart warns that AI is reshaping society in unintended ways. For example, social media content selection algorithms that choose what individuals watch and read do not even know that human beings exist. As AI becomes more capable, he suggests that we are going to see bigger failures unless we change the way we think about AI altogether. Stuart argues that to ensure AI is provably beneficial for human beings, we must design machines to be inherently uncertain about human preferences. This way, we can ensure they are humble, altruistic, and committed to pursuing our objectives even as they set their own goals. We also discuss why AI needs regulation similar to civil engineering and medicine, the impact AI is going to make over the next decade, autonomous vehicles, and a variety of other topics.

Twenty years ago, Stuart Russell co-wrote a book titled Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (AIMA), destined to become the dominant text in its field. Near the end of the book, he posed a question: "What if A.I. does succeed?" Today, progress toward human-level artificial intelligence (A.I.) is advancing rapidly, and Russell, a professor of computer science, is posing the same question with more urgency. The benefits of A.I. are not at issue. If improperly constrained, Russell warns, a machine as smart as or smarter than humans "is of no use whatsoever -- in fact it's catastrophic."

UC Berkeley artificial intelligence (AI) expert Stuart Russell will lead a new Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, launched this week. BRETT, the Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks, ties a knot after watching others demonstrate it. Russell, a UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and the Smith-Zadeh Professor in Engineering, is co-author of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, which is considered the standard text in the field of artificial intelligence, and has been an advocate for incorporating human values into the design of AI. The primary focus of the new center is to ensure that AI systems are beneficial to humans, he said. The co-principal investigators for the new center include computer scientists Pieter Abbeel and Anca Dragan and cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths, all from UC Berkeley; computer scientists Bart Selman and Joseph Halpern, from Cornell University; and AI experts Michael Wellman and Satinder Singh Baveja, from the University of Michigan.

UC Berkeley artificial intelligence (AI) expert Stuart Russell will lead a new Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, launched this week. BRETT, the Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks, ties a knot after watching others demonstrate it. Russell, a UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and the Smith-Zadeh Professor in Engineering, is co-author of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, which is considered the standard text in the field of artificial intelligence, and has been an advocate for incorporating human values into the design of AI. The primary focus of the new center is to ensure that AI systems are beneficial to humans, he said. The co-principal investigators for the new center include computer scientists Pieter Abbeel and Anca Dragan and cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths from UC Berkeley; computer scientists Bart Selman and Joseph Halpern from Cornell University; and AI experts Michael Wellman and Satinder Singh Baveja from the University of Michigan.