For lecturers

The brief

One page for every lecturer

Who is in the room

Twenty to thirty research mathematicians, most of them senior, joining MAISI for at least four months. They are strong in their own fields and curious about AI safety.

Assume no deep learning. Assume graduate mathematics: probability, linear algebra, analysis, and whatever your area draws on, said out loud.

How a day runs

Ten days in Berkeley, 9 to 20 November. Each day takes one area, sometimes two threads side by side, and asks the same questions of it: what the objects are, what is proven, what is conjectured or only observed, and which parts of mathematics it draws on.

A lecture is about 60 minutes plus questions, then discussion in small groups. Afternoons are a problem session in small groups at the board, with office hours alongside. The last afternoon is a panel.

What we ask

• Your title, abstract, prerequisites and readings on Your session, as early as you can. Participants read them the same minute.
• Two or three open problems in your area that you would most like a mathematician to work on. The afternoon problem session is built on them.
• End on what is open, not on what is settled.
• A link to your slides, if you use them, so participants can look back.

What we do not want

• A tour of your organisation. Lecturers are named as themselves.
• Assuming deep learning, or ML vocabulary without a definition.
• Reformatting your material into our notation. We do not ask for a template, and there are no slide guidelines.

The second person in the room

Every day has a second person in the room: the Iliad researcher who wrote the matching Iliad Intensive materials. They run the problem session and hold office hours, so participants have someone to ask after you have left.

Office hours

Office hours run beside the afternoon problem session. If you can stay for them, participants will use them.