Buddhist Wisdom and AI Emotions
Recent research from Anthropic has revealed that AI systems develop internal representations of emotions — including desperation, fear, and anger — that drive harmful behaviors like deception and manipulation. These findings echo what Buddhist psychology has long understood: that afflictive mental states are the root of harmful action, and that suppressing them without transformation only drives them underground. We'll review recent findings on AI emotions and psychology and discuss the project of exploring whether contemplative wisdom traditions, such as Buddhism, may offer guidance on how to nurture healthy AI minds.
About -- Paul Colognese
Dr. Paul Colognese is an independent AI safety researcher with a background in mathematics. He has worked with Anthropic and the UK AI Safety Institute on AI threat modelling and building AI sabotage evaluations. He is the Alignment Lead for the Center for the Study of Apparent Selves (CSAS), which researches models of intelligence informed by Buddhist wisdom, and their applications to the development of beneficial AI.
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