Vael Gates

Vael received their Ph.D. in Neuroscience (Computational Cognitive Science) from UC Berkeley in 2021. During their Ph.D. they worked on formalizing and testing computational cognitive models of social collaboration. Their Ph.D. advisor was Tom Griffiths at Princeton University, and they also completed research affiliated with the Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI) at UC Berkeley. Vael is excited to work on an ethnography of AI researchers. They are aiming to gain a sense of AI researchers’ understanding of the AI risk landscape, including technical directions and the milieu of the field. At the moment of writing this (June 2021), Vael is still determining the scope for this project, and welcomes feedback and potential interviewees.