SRI Seminar Series: Christopher Summerfield, “The Habermas Machine: Using AI to help people find common ground” – Jan 15, 2025
Session Description
January 15, 2025 @ 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Our weekly SRI Seminar Series welcomes Christopher Summerfield, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Oxford University whose research focuses on human learning and decision-making. Summerfield is also an ERC Consolidator Investigator, staff scientist at DeepMind, and a fellow of Wadham College.
Summerfield’s work with his research group, Human Information Processing, is concerned with understanding how humans learn and make decisions, explore how insights from psychology can inform the design of intelligent systems, and shedding light on what AI can reveal about human cognition. In his most recent work, Summerfield and his collaborators have developed a large language model called the “Habermas Machine” to act as an AI mediator, helping groups with differing views find consensus by synthesizing opinions into clear and fair summaries.
Moderator: Sheila McIlraith
About the speaker
Christopher Summerfield is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Oxford’s Department of Experimental Psychology, a staff scientist at DeepMind, and a fellow of Wadham College. His research explores the computational mechanisms by which humans make decisions, and how these processes are implemented in the brain. Summerfield simulates learning processes using computational models, including deep neural networks, behavioural testing, and noninvasive brain-imaging techniques, such as fMRI and EEG, to observe activity in real-time as individuals learn and make decisions, providing key insights into the neural underpinnings of cognition. Summerfield was trained in psychology and neuroscience at University College London, Columbia University (New York), and the École normale supérieure (Paris). His research has been funded by grants from the European Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and the National Institute of Health.
About the SRI Seminar Series
The SRI Seminar Series brings together the Schwartz Reisman community and beyond for a robust exchange of ideas that advance scholarship at the intersection of technology and society. Seminars are led by a leading or emerging scholar and feature extensive discussion.
