Verity Harding, Co-Lead of Ethics and Society at DeepMind
Verity Harding is a globally recognised expert in AI, technology and public policy. She is currently Director of the AI and Geopolitics Project (AIxGEO) at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy. Verity’s career has focussed on the intersection of technology and democracy. She spent a decade at Alphabet, latterly as DeepMind’s first Global Head of Public Policy, where in 2017 she co-founded the company’s research and ethics unit, as well as the independent multi-stakeholder organisation, Partnership on AI.
Harding attended Oxford’s Pembroke College to study history. Her area of expertise was American history, and she finished her Black Power thesis under Stephen Tuck’s guidance. She attended Harvard University as a Michael von Clemm Fellow in 2007. She worked as an associated researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy in 2022.
Throughout his career, Harding has concentrated on the relationship between democracy and technology. She worked with Alphabet for ten years, most recently as DeepMind’s first Global Head of Public Policy. In 2017, she co-founded the Partnership on AI, an independent multi-stakeholder organization, and the company’s research and ethics unit. In 2018–19, she was also a part of the OECD’s Network of AI Experts, which created the initial set of AI guidelines that the G20 agreed upon.
2023
An AI research team at Google’s DeepMind project has created a particular kind of AI system that may exhibit social learning skills. The team details how they created an artificial intelligence program that demonstrated its capacity to pick up new abilities in a simulated environment by imitating the behaviors of an implanted “expert” in their publication published in the journal Nature Communications.
The team’s initial task was to create GoalCycle3D, a virtual environment with uneven terrain, different barriers, and multicolored spheres. Next, artificial intelligence (AI) agents were included. Their goal was to navigate the virtual environment by dodging barriers and entering circles. All that was provided to the agents in terms of knowledge about the world they would live in were learning modules. They used reinforcement learning to learn how to go forward.
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, discussed the future of AI and the progress made by the company. He highlighted the merger of Google Brain and DeepMind, the success of ChatGPT, the potential of non-generative AI, the future of AI chatbots, and the path towards Autonomous General Intelligence (AGI). Hassabis also highlighted the need for collaboration between multiple models, such as a language and learning model for communication and another for specific tasks, to drive advancements towards AGI.
Latest Social posts of Verity Harding
This smart positioning on AI strategy from Labour in the New Statesman today. An open goal at the moment in making this all tangible and centred on the lives of most people. pic.twitter.com/L7sGHl5Czr
— Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.s (@PrincetonUPress) November 28, 2023
🚨Just under 2 weeks left to apply for this exciting role working with me and @DianeCoyle1859 at the new AI & Geopolitics Project in Cambridge. Please share widely with your networks! https://t.co/apqlfuaEj2
