SRI Seminar Series: Christopher Summerfield

Our weekly SRI Seminar Series welcomes Christopher Summerfield, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Oxford University whose research focuses on human learning and decision-making. Summerfield is also an ERC Consolidator Investigator, staff scientist at DeepMind, and a fellow of Wadham College.

Summerfield’s work with his research group, Human Information Processing, is concerned with understanding how humans learn and make decisions, explore how insights from psychology can inform the design of intelligent systems, and shedding light on what AI can reveal about human cognition. In his most recent work, Summerfield and his collaborators have developed a large language model called the “Habermas Machine” to act as an AI mediator, helping groups with differing views find consensus by synthesizing opinions into clear and fair summaries.

Moderator: Sheila McIlraith

Talk title: “The Habermas Machine: Using AI to help people find common ground”

Abstract:

Language models allow us to treat text as data. This opens up new opportunities for human communication, deliberation, and debate. In this talk, I will describe a project in which we use a large language model (LLM) to help people find agreement, by training it to produce statements about political issues that a group with diverse views will endorse. We find that the statements it produces help people find common ground, and shift their views towards a shared stance on the issue. By analysing embeddings, we show that the group statements respect the majority view but prominently include dissenting voices. We use the tool to mount a virtual citizens’ assembly and show that independent groups debating political issues relevant to the UK move in a common direction. We call this AI system the “Habermas Machine,” after the theorist Jurgen Habermas, who proposed that when rational people debate under idealised conditions, agreement will emerge in the public sphere. 

About the speaker

Christopher Summerfield is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Oxford’s Department of Experimental Psychology, a staff scientist at DeepMind, and a fellow of Wadham College. His research explores the computational mechanisms by which humans make decisions, and how these processes are implemented in the brain. Summerfield simulates learning processes using computational models, including deep neural networks, behavioural testing, and noninvasive brain-imaging techniques, such as fMRI and EEG, to observe activity in real-time as individuals learn and make decisions, providing key insights into the neural underpinnings of cognition. Summerfield was trained in psychology and neuroscience at University College London, Columbia University (New York), and the École normale supérieure (Paris). His research has been funded by grants from the European Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and the National Institute of Health.

About the SRI Seminar Series

The SRI Seminar Series brings together the Schwartz Reisman community and beyond for a robust exchange of ideas that advance scholarship at the intersection of technology and society. Seminars are led by a leading or emerging scholar and feature extensive discussion.

To register for all seminar events in the Winter 2025 season, please contact us directly at sri.research@utoronto.ca.

About the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society is a research institute at the University of Toronto that explores the ethical and societal implications of technology. Our mission is to deepen knowledge of technologies, societies, and humanity by integrating research across traditional boundaries to build human-centred solutions.

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