Portrait of Tegan Maharaj

Tegan Maharaj

Core Academic Member
tegan.maharaj@mila.quebec
Assistant Professor in Machine Learning, HEC Montréal, Department of Decision Science
Research Topics
Deep Learning
Dynamical Systems
Machine Learning Theory
Multimodal Learning
Representation Learning
Website
Google Scholar

Biography

I am an assistant professor at the Department of Decision Science at HEC Montréal.

The goal of my research is to contribute understanding and techniques to the growing science of responsible AI development, while usefully applying AI to high-impact ecological problems related to climate change, epidemiology, AI alignment and ecological impact assessments. My recent research has two themes: (1) using deep models for policy analysis and risk mitigation, and (2) designing data or unit test environments to empirically evaluate learning behaviour or simulate the deployment of AI systems. Please contact me if you are interested in collaborations in these areas.

I am generally interested in studying “what goes into” deep models—not only data, but also the broader learning environment (e.g., task design/specification, loss function and regularization) and the broader societal context of deployment (e.g., privacy considerations, trends and incentives, norms and human biases). I am concerned and passionate about AI ethics and safety, and the application of ML to environmental management, health and social welfare.

Current Students

Carol Altimas
Master's Research - Université de Montréal
Principal supervisor :
Étienne Laliberté
Nilly Bozorgzad
Master's Research - HEC Montréal
Website
Github
Maël Simon
PhD - HEC Montréal
Github

Publications

Managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Trevor Darrell
Yuval Noah Harari
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan … (see 5 more)
Philip Torr
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
Preparation requires technical research and development, as well as adaptive, proactive governance Artificial intelligence (AI) is progressi… (see more)ng rapidly, and companies are shifting their focus to developing generalist AI systems that can autonomously act and pursue goals. Increases in capabilities and autonomy may soon massively amplify AI’s impact, with risks that include large-scale social harms, malicious uses, and an irreversible loss of human control over autonomous AI systems. Although researchers have warned of extreme risks from AI (1), there is a lack of consensus about how to manage them. Society’s response, despite promising first steps, is incommensurate with the possibility of rapid, transformative progress that is expected by many experts. AI safety research is lagging. Present governance initiatives lack the mechanisms and institutions to prevent misuse and recklessness and barely address autonomous systems. Drawing on lessons learned from other safety-critical technologies, we outline a comprehensive plan that combines technical research and development (R&D) with proactive, adaptive governance mechanisms for a more commensurate preparation.
2023-10-26
Science (published)
doi.org
Managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Trevor Darrell
Yuval Noah Harari
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan … (see 5 more)
Philip Torr
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
2023-10-26
Science (published)
doi.org
Managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Trevor Darrell
Yuval Noah Harari
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan … (see 5 more)
Philip Torr
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
Preparation requires technical research and development, as well as adaptive, proactive governance Artificial intelligence (AI) is progressi… (see more)ng rapidly, and companies are shifting their focus to developing generalist AI systems that can autonomously act and pursue goals. Increases in capabilities and autonomy may soon massively amplify AI’s impact, with risks that include large-scale social harms, malicious uses, and an irreversible loss of human control over autonomous AI systems. Although researchers have warned of extreme risks from AI (1), there is a lack of consensus about how to manage them. Society’s response, despite promising first steps, is incommensurate with the possibility of rapid, transformative progress that is expected by many experts. AI safety research is lagging. Present governance initiatives lack the mechanisms and institutions to prevent misuse and recklessness and barely address autonomous systems. Drawing on lessons learned from other safety-critical technologies, we outline a comprehensive plan that combines technical research and development (R&D) with proactive, adaptive governance mechanisms for a more commensurate preparation.
2023-10-26
Science (published)
doi.org
Managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Trevor Darrell
Yuval Noah Harari
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan … (see 5 more)
Philip Torr
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
Preparation requires technical research and development, as well as adaptive, proactive governance Artificial intelligence (AI) is progressi… (see more)ng rapidly, and companies are shifting their focus to developing generalist AI systems that can autonomously act and pursue goals. Increases in capabilities and autonomy may soon massively amplify AI’s impact, with risks that include large-scale social harms, malicious uses, and an irreversible loss of human control over autonomous AI systems. Although researchers have warned of extreme risks from AI (1), there is a lack of consensus about how to manage them. Society’s response, despite promising first steps, is incommensurate with the possibility of rapid, transformative progress that is expected by many experts. AI safety research is lagging. Present governance initiatives lack the mechanisms and institutions to prevent misuse and recklessness and barely address autonomous systems. Drawing on lessons learned from other safety-critical technologies, we outline a comprehensive plan that combines technical research and development (R&D) with proactive, adaptive governance mechanisms for a more commensurate preparation.
2023-10-26
Science (published)
doi.org
Managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Trevor Darrell
Yuval Noah Harari
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan … (see 5 more)
Philip Torr
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
2023-10-26
Science (published)
doi.org
Managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Trevor Darrell
Yuval Noah Harari
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan … (see 5 more)
Philip Torr
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
Preparation requires technical research and development, as well as adaptive, proactive governance Artificial intelligence (AI) is progressi… (see more)ng rapidly, and companies are shifting their focus to developing generalist AI systems that can autonomously act and pursue goals. Increases in capabilities and autonomy may soon massively amplify AI’s impact, with risks that include large-scale social harms, malicious uses, and an irreversible loss of human control over autonomous AI systems. Although researchers have warned of extreme risks from AI (1), there is a lack of consensus about how to manage them. Society’s response, despite promising first steps, is incommensurate with the possibility of rapid, transformative progress that is expected by many experts. AI safety research is lagging. Present governance initiatives lack the mechanisms and institutions to prevent misuse and recklessness and barely address autonomous systems. Drawing on lessons learned from other safety-critical technologies, we outline a comprehensive plan that combines technical research and development (R&D) with proactive, adaptive governance mechanisms for a more commensurate preparation.
2023-10-26
Science (published)
doi.org
Managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Trevor Darrell
Yuval Noah Harari
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan … (see 5 more)
Philip Torr
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
Preparation requires technical research and development, as well as adaptive, proactive governance Artificial intelligence (AI) is progressi… (see more)ng rapidly, and companies are shifting their focus to developing generalist AI systems that can autonomously act and pursue goals. Increases in capabilities and autonomy may soon massively amplify AI’s impact, with risks that include large-scale social harms, malicious uses, and an irreversible loss of human control over autonomous AI systems. Although researchers have warned of extreme risks from AI (1), there is a lack of consensus about how to manage them. Society’s response, despite promising first steps, is incommensurate with the possibility of rapid, transformative progress that is expected by many experts. AI safety research is lagging. Present governance initiatives lack the mechanisms and institutions to prevent misuse and recklessness and barely address autonomous systems. Drawing on lessons learned from other safety-critical technologies, we outline a comprehensive plan that combines technical research and development (R&D) with proactive, adaptive governance mechanisms for a more commensurate preparation.
2023-10-26
Science (published)
doi.org
Managing AI Risks in an Era of Rapid Progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Yuval Noah Harari
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan
Philip Torr … (see 4 more)
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
In this short consensus paper, we outline risks from upcoming, advanced AI systems. We examine large-scale social harms and malicious uses, … (see more)as well as an irreversible loss of human control over autonomous AI systems. In light of rapid and continuing AI progress, we propose priorities for AI R&D and governance.
2023-10-26
ArXiv (preprint)
doi.org
arxiv.org
Managing AI Risks in an Era of Rapid Progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Yuval Noah Harari
Trevor Darrell
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan … (see 5 more)
Philip Torr
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
2023-10-26
Science (published)
doi.org
arxiv.org
Managing AI Risks in an Era of Rapid Progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Yuval Noah Harari
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan
Philip Torr … (see 4 more)
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
In this short consensus paper, we outline risks from upcoming, advanced AI systems. We examine large-scale social harms and malicious uses, … (see more)as well as an irreversible loss of human control over autonomous AI systems. In light of rapid and continuing AI progress, we propose priorities for AI R&D and governance.
2023-10-26
ArXiv (preprint)
doi.org
arxiv.org
Managing AI Risks in an Era of Rapid Progress
Yoshua Bengio
Geoffrey Hinton
Andrew Yao
Dawn Song
Pieter Abbeel
Yuval Noah Harari
Ya-Qin Zhang
Lan Xue
Shai Shalev-Shwartz
Gillian K. Hadfield
Jeff Clune
Tegan Maharaj
Frank Hutter
Atilim Güneş Baydin
Sheila McIlraith
Qiqi Gao
Ashwin Acharya
David Scott Krueger
Anca Dragan
Philip Torr … (see 4 more)
Stuart Russell
Daniel Kahneman
Jan Brauner
Sören Mindermann
In this short consensus paper, we outline risks from upcoming, advanced AI systems. We examine large-scale social harms and malicious uses, … (see more)as well as an irreversible loss of human control over autonomous AI systems. In light of rapid and continuing AI progress, we propose priorities for AI R&D and governance.
2023-10-26
ArXiv (preprint)
doi.org
arxiv.org
Harms from Increasingly Agentic Algorithmic Systems
Alan Chan
Rebecca Salganik
Alva Markelius
Chris Pang
Nitarshan Rajkumar
Dmitrii Krasheninnikov
Lauro Langosco
Zhonghao He
Yawen Duan
Micah Carroll
Michelle Lin
Alex Mayhew
Katherine Collins
Maryam Molamohammadi
John Burden
Wanru Zhao
Shalaleh Rismani
Konstantinos Voudouris
Umang Bhatt
Adrian Weller … (see 2 more)
David Scott Krueger
Tegan Maharaj
Research in Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE)1 has established many sources and forms of algorithmic harm, in domain… (see more)s as diverse as health care, finance, policing, and recommendations. Much work remains to be done to mitigate the serious harms of these systems, particularly those disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. Despite these ongoing harms, new systems are being developed and deployed, typically without strong regulatory barriers, threatening the perpetuation of the same harms and the creation of novel ones. In response, the FATE community has emphasized the importance of anticipating harms, rather than just responding to them. Anticipation of harms is especially important given the rapid pace of developments in machine learning (ML). Our work focuses on the anticipation of harms from increasingly agentic systems. Rather than providing a definition of agency as a binary property, we identify 4 key characteristics which, particularly in combination, tend to increase the agency of a given algorithmic system: underspecification, directness of impact, goal-directedness, and long-term planning. We also discuss important harms which arise from increasing agency – notably, these include systemic and/or long-range impacts, often on marginalized or unconsidered stakeholders. We emphasize that recognizing agency of algorithmic systems does not absolve or shift the human responsibility for algorithmic harms. Rather, we use the term agency to highlight the increasingly evident fact that ML systems are not fully under human control. Our work explores increasingly agentic algorithmic systems in three parts. First, we explain the notion of an increase in agency for algorithmic systems in the context of diverse perspectives on agency across disciplines. Second, we argue for the need to anticipate harms from increasingly agentic systems. Third, we discuss important harms from increasingly agentic systems and ways forward for addressing them. We conclude by reflecting on implications of our work for anticipating algorithmic harms from emerging systems.
2023-06-12
2023 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (published)
doi.org
arxiv.org