Complexity Science

The Inherent Dangers of Optimizing Complex Systems

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Over the weekend, a new article appeared on the BBC announcing that biotechnology researchers have used artificial intelligence (AI) to design complete viral genomes that can infect harmful bacteria. I just finished writing the article about misaligned AI models being released into the wild, so the reference to the AI breakthrough caught my eye. My … Read more

When Systems Shape Choice: The Architecture of Inevitability

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How Systems Shape Choice - Forces Behind Human Behavior

People often attribute decisions to individual actors when the dominant cause may be the structure of the system in which those actors operate. Sometimes, the system changes the landscape so that certain choices become overwhelmingly likely while others become increasingly costly. AI companies are currently under scrutiny for deciding to release possibly misaligned models into … Read more