BRSL Events

In this talk, co-sponsored by PauseAI, Holly Elmore (co-founder of PauseAI and Dr. of Evolutionary Biology) lays out her deep worldview on genetic conflict, human society, and social change and explains how that is cashed out in PauseAI’s theory of change. PauseAI is for anyone who wants to pause AI development (and pledges nonviolence!). But PauseAI was organized according to the idea that the real AI danger isn’t simply a technical issue awaiting a bugfix. The problem is that we are developing machines of arbitrary intelligence. Arbitrary intelligence is arbitrary power, and the existence of such power will disrupt many societal equilibria, some we anticipate and who knows how many that we may not even be aware of. It may take many years to bring human society to the point where we can coexist comfortably with advanced AI, or human society may be fundamentally incompatible with superhuman AI. Whatever we do about advancing AI as a society must take all of these possibilities into account.

Holly Elmore, PauseAI co-founder and Dr. of Evolutionary Biology.

Climate change will alter the operating environment for nuclear forces, though it is still largely unaccounted for in nuclear modernization plans. Drawing on historical data and future projections of environmental conditions, Lindsay Rand will examine how climate change effects – rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and more frequent and severe extreme weather events – could undermine current modernization plans aimed at ensuring the long-term safety, security, reliability, and credibility of nuclear forces.

BRSL Research Scholar Dr. Lindsay Rand.

This talk exposes how a multibillion-dollar spyware industry—fueled by zero-day exploits and shielded by corporate obfuscation—has outmaneuvered every law, sanction, and enforcement measure thrown at it. The talk, co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, challenges the seductive simplicity of global moratoriums on the industry, showing how they offer little more than the illusion of safety. Instead, it lays out a bold blueprint for a multilateral regime that can reclaim control over current and future surveillance technologies before they irreversibly erode human rights and democratic governance.

Asaf Lubin, Associate Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, in conversation with BRSL’s Elaine Korzak.

The AI governance and risk management landscape has evolved with, for example, the release of The General-Purpose AI Code of Practice and at least a dozen frontier AI safety frameworks from leading AI companies. I will compare these developments to the shifting AI risk landscape and highlight key priorities to help developers, policymakers, and researchers stay a step ahead in order to realize AI’s benefits — and prevent its greatest harms.

Jessica Newman, Research Fellow, Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity; Director, Artificial Intelligence Security Initiative.