Destabilising cooperative equilibria (proposed by Ed Hughes – DeepMind)

Simulate (e.g. via agent-based modelling, or via a human study) situations in which social norms between humans can become unstable if foundation models are introduced. In particular, focus on the way in which foundation models provide new "affordances" for their users that humans previously were unable to access (due to time / energy / physical constraints). This will require some brainstorming but could include:

• Simulation of the way in which video / audio production markets could become destabilised by widely available high-quality video / audio generation systems.
• Simulation of the way in which AI assistants could destabilise norms around communication (e.g. a language model that could block book 1000 restaurants, a ticketing system that could reserve 1000 tickets, a negotiation system that can respond 1000 times a day).
• Simulation of the effect of increased opacity in decision making delegated to AI on trust between humans interacting with each other.

Probably requires compute: API access to LLMs potentially. Human input: most compelling with a simple human study on Prolific.