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SUMMARY:Responsible AI Series | “In praise of local AI agents” with Jua
 n Pablo Bermudez
DESCRIPTION:Join us at the Dyson School of Design Engineering for a series 
 of seminars on Responsible AI\, featuring expert speakers who will share t
 heir insights on how to develop and deploy AI systems responsibly. The ser
 ies is chaired by Professor Rafael Calvo.\nTalk Abstract\nOne of the most 
 intriguing theories in philosophy is the extended mind hypothesis: the vi
 ew that our minds are so intertwined with parts of our environment that ou
 r mind itself extends beyond our skull and into the world (Clark & Chalme
 rs\, 1998). We offload maths to a calculator\, memory to our notebooks –
  and now we offload reasoning and creativity to AI. \nIn this talk I will
  explore our relationship with AI through the extended mind lens. Is it po
 ssible that our thinking\, learning\, and creating become so integrated wi
 th LLMs that these systems become part of our minds? And if so\, what are 
 the practical consequences? Should we allow for our minds to merge with AI
 s\, and in what conditions? \nI will argue that \n\nLLM tools can meet
  the tests for counting as part of your cognitive system (they are instant
 ly available and you tend to trust their outputs).\nOnce these tools leave
  the chat box and become AI agents that decide and act for us\, they exten
 d not just our minds but our whole agency. We think\, choose\, and act th
 rough them.\nThis means whoever owns these tools has enormous power over 
 our minds and our agency. And software platforms have a habit of enshitti
 fying: great while they are winning you over\, worse once you are locked i
 n (Doctorow\, 2025). So watch out: if your mind is tightly linked with LL
 Ms\, and they become shit\, then part of your mind gets trapped in that me
 ss.\nTo protect our mind and autonomy from enshittification\, we should ke
 ep as much control as we can over our own thinking infrastructure. We shou
 ld own the means of agency production.\n\nThis is a call to build. As desi
 gners and engineers\, you may be the people who decide whether ordinary us
 ers can own their cognitive tools\, or whether we all end up renting our m
 inds from a handful of companies. How can we build the equivalent of a Fai
 rPhone or a Wikipedia for AI?  \nSmall-scale local hardware will not mat
 ch what giant data centres can do\, so there are limits to what we can ach
 ieve locally and bottom-up. But every step is a victory. I conclude by exp
 loring the potential\, limitations\, and risks of integrating our minds wi
 th local AI agents. 
URL:https://www.imperial.ac.uk/events/215341/responsible-ai-series-in-prais
 e-of-local-ai-agents-with-juan-pablo-bermudez/
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261123T093000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261123T110000
LOCATION:Ground Floor Lecture Theatre\, Dyson Building of Design Engineerin
 g\, South Kensington Campus\, Imperial College London\, London\, SW7 2AZ\,
  United Kingdom
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