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The Automated Scholar: Research in the Age of Powerful AI Agents  (The Ethical Dimension of AI Literacy Series)

The Automated Scholar: Research in the Age of Powerful AI Agents (The Ethical Dimension of AI Literacy Series)

Join us for the second talk in The Ethical Dimension of AI Literacy Series.  In this session join Anton Korinek, Professor at the University of Virginia, Department of Economics and Darden School of Business, and Faculty Director of the Economics of Transformative AI (EconTAI) Initiative for the following talk: 

Building AI systems that can pursue novel research turns out to look a lot like raising graduate students: the hard part is judgement, not knowledge. As AI systems become capable of autonomously researching the literature, advancing hypotheses, analyzing data, and drafting research outputs, we face the challenge of instilling not just facts and techniques but the expert intuition about what questions matter, what methods are appropriate, and what constitutes a genuine contribution. Drawing on ongoing work developing specialized AI systems for research, this talk explores how to build domain expertise into AI systems and the meta challenges we face: how to verify what AI produces, who bears responsibility for its conclusions, and what role remains for human expertise.

All are invited to register and attend.  

Date:
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Time:
11:00am - 12:00pm
Location:
Shannon Seminar Room 330
Campus:
Shannon Library
Categories:
AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Presenter:
Anton Korinek

Registration is required. There are 36 seats available.


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Event Organizer

Bethany Mickel