AI pioneer launches non-profit to develop safe-by-design AI models
Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian-French AI scientist who has won the prestigious Alan Turing Prize for his work on deep learning and has been dubbed one of the "godfathers" of AI, announced the launch of LawZero in Montreal.
The new non-profit is assembling a "world-class" team of AI researchers that is dedicated to "prioritising safety over commercial imperatives," a statement from the non-profit reads.
"Today's frontier AI models are developing dangerous capabilities and behaviours, including deception, self-preservation, and goal misalignment," Bengio said in the statement, noting that the organisation will help unlock the "immense potential" of AI while reducing these risks.
Bengio said the non-profit was born of a new "scientific direction" he took in 2023, which has culminated in "Scientist AI," a new non-agentic AI system he and his team are developing to act as a guardrail against "uncontrolled" agentic AI systems.
This principle is different than other companies in that it wants to prioritise non-agentic AIs, meaning it needs direct instructions for each task instead of independently coming up with the answers, like most AI systems.
The non-agentic AIs built by LawZero will "learn to understand the world rather than act in it," and will be trained to give "truthful answers to questions based on [external] reasoning".
Bengio elaborated on Scientist AI in a recent opinion piece for Time, where he wrote that he is "genuinely unsettled by the behaviour unrestrained AI is already demonstrating, in particular self-preservation and deception".
"Rather than trying to please humans, Scientist AI could be designed to prioritise honesty," he wrote.
The organisation has received donations from other AI institutes like the Future of Life Institute, Jaan Tallin, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in its incubator phase.
LawZero will be working out of the MILA - Quebec AI Institute in Montreal, which Bengio helped co-found.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
43 minutes ago
- Euronews
Hunting microplastics: French scientists sound the alarm on plastic pollution
The Mediterranean is the sixth largest accumulation zone for marine litter. It holds only 1% of the world's waters but concentrates 7% of all global microplastics. This is why French scientists from the Exploration Bleue project have come off the coast of Toulon to study the impact of microplastic pollution in the Mediterranean Sea. Their expeditions are led by the NGO Expédition 7ᵉ Continent's 27-metre sailing vessel. 'The Mediterranean is an enclosed sea with a dense population. All human activity ends up in the sea. We study the chemical pollutants carried by plastics. What we already know is that all of them contain chemical pollution,' explains Alexandra Ter-Halle, Director of Research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and scientific coordinator of the expedition. The research involves towing two trawls for one hour to collect microplastic samples. These will then be sorted in the laboratories participating in the project. Alexandra has been studying the chemical nature of pollutants associated with plastics for years at the University of Toulouse. 'We measure and weigh microplastics; we analyse their composition. We know that over 16,000 chemical substances are used to make plastics — 4,000 of them are already classified as hazardous.' When marine animals are exposed to microplastics, chemical substances can transfer into their bodies. Since many of these are endocrine disruptors, they impact the animals' health. The effects on humans are not yet fully understood, as Alexandra explains: 'We know that endocrine disruptors affect the entire hormonal system in our bodies. They impact fertility and the development of cancer, but we still have many questions about this plastic pollution.' Science is only just beginning to understand how dangerous microplastics can be for ecosystems and human health. We eat, breathe and drink them — but there's still much we don't know. For micro- and nanoplastics, which are often smaller than a thousandth of a millimetre, we lack precise tools to measure them or fully grasp their effects, scientists say. The European Commission's Zero Pollution Action Plan aims to cut microplastics by 30% by 2030. Jean-François Ghiglione, a marine microbiologist and research director at CNRS, led an unprecedented sampling campaign across nine major European rivers in 2019. He found microplastics everywhere in 'alarming' concentrations. 'Europe is quite advanced in this area,' explains Ghiglione. 'We used to have massive plastic pollution, mainly from packaging and single-use plastics. That was the European Union's initial target. Now, we're hoping to see a shift in how plastic is perceived.' So far, plastic has been viewed as waste, and efforts have focused on waste management. Ghiglione hopes the EU will drive a push for a drastic reduction in plastic production, and also come out with a list of chemical substances to be banned from use in plastics. Europe has made progress in limiting microplastics, but Ghiglione and the scientific community are calling for more. With negotiations for a global treaty still underway, Europe and the international community face a choice: continue managing pollution, or tackle the problem at its root.
Local France
3 hours ago
- Local France
'Perfect summer' for mosquitoes in Paris region
Mosquitoes are a common, if annoying, feature of summer in France - but this year they are particularly numerous in the Île-de-France region in northern France. Scientists say that the relatively cool, damp July that Paris and the surrounding areas saw created a perfect breeding ground for the irritating pests, with the August heatwave adding good flying conditions. The conditions are especially good for tiger mosquitoes - a relatively recent import, originally found in Asia, which can spread diseases including dengue fever, zika and chikungunya. Advertisement "The only difference this year compared to previous years is the various periods of rain in July. This has caused several pockets of water to fill up in urban areas," Johan Hemminki, a researcher at the Île-de-France Regional Biodiversity Agency, told French newspaper Le Parisien . Georges Jakerian, operations manager for the regional mosquito control agency Agence régionale de démoustication , said: "Add that July rain to the current heat, and you have the perfect combination for a resurgence of tiger mosquitoes." Tiger mosquitoes, distinguished by their black and white striped bodies, are active during the day, unlike the more common mosquitoes, which tend to come out at night. READ ALSO : How to prevent the spread of tiger mosquitoes in France Originally found in Asia, warming temperatures mean they are increasingly common in Europe and over the last decade or so, have gradually moved north through France. They are now regularly found in almost all of the country , apart from some areas along the Channel coast. They are believed to be behind the rise in cases of chikungunya fever among people who have not travelled to the regions where the disease is endemic. READ ALSO : 'The risk is real': France sees rise in cases of chikungunya fever
Local France
3 hours ago
- Local France
French word of the Day: Démoustication
Why do I need to know démoustication ? Because it's a vital summer activity, and it introduces a common French grammar motif. What does it mean? Démoustication - pronounced as day-moose-tick-ass-ion - meaning 'de-mosquito-ing' or more correctly mosquito control/eradication. The French word for mosquito is un moustique, and in the summer, you will see shelves full of anti-moustique products in the pharmacy or the garden centre. There are multiple outdoor products, including citronella candles and plants that allegedly repel mosquitoes . Mosquitoes are becoming an increasing problem in France as warming temperatures have seen the spread of tiger mosquitoes ( moustiques tigres ), which can spread several potentially fatal diseases. Which brings us to la démoustication - this is usually used to describe widespread, professional mosquito control operations, carried out by either private pest control companies or government agencies such as the Agence de démoustication (mosquito control agency). Advertisement The addition of the prefix 'dé' to a word to signal an ending or an eradication/control is quite common in French, you may have heard of dératisation - rat-culling - or remember the déconfinement - the ending of lockdown ( confinement ) during the Covid pandemic. Although the prefix exists to an extent in English, it's more commonly used in a casual or spoken way, eg "I need to de-flea the dog' - while in French it is formal and grammatically correct, as evidenced by its use in the official name for a government agency. Use it like this L'opération démoustication débutera la semaine prochaine dans tout le département - the mosquito control operation will start next week across the whole département Agence régionale de démoustication affirme que c'est un été idéal pour les moustiques à Paris - the regional mosquito control agency confirmed that this is an ideal summer for mosquitoes in Paris
