Andrea Baronchelli – From Local Interactions to Global Conventions: Emergent Social Coordination in Humans and Machines

When: 2025-03-17 16:00-18:00 (Tallinn time)
Where: A108 & online

The event is public via zoom:
https://zoom.us/j/94629959885?pwd=2NktNsXm0SzbzwwmfGbqlk5UZQoARw.1
Meeting ID: 946 2995 9885 Passcode: 007238

Speaker

Andrea Baronchelli
City, University of London

Lecture title
From Local Interactions to Global Conventions: Emergent Social Coordination in Humans and Machines

Abstract
Social conventions are the foundation of social coordination, shaping how individuals come together to form a society. In this talk, I will present theoretical and experimental findings that demonstrate the spontaneous emergence of social norms in human groups, as well as the existence of tipping points in social conventions. I will then explore the case of populations of large language models (LLMs). As AI agents increasingly communicate using natural language, understanding how they develop conventions is crucial for interpreting and managing their collective behaviour. I will show that LLM populations can establish social conventions and highlight how collective biases can emerge even when individual agents appear unbiased. The ability of AI agents to develop norms without explicit programming has significant implications for designing AI systems that align with human values and societal goals.

Reference
Ashery, A. F., Aiello, L. M., & Baronchelli, A. (2024). The Dynamics of Social Conventions in LLM populations: Spontaneous Emergence, Collective Biases and Tipping Points. arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.08948 https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.08948

Websites
https://www.city.ac.uk/about/people/academics/andrea-baronchelli
https://www.andreabaronchelli.com/