​At this event, we are gathering to explore what trust means when machines start acting on our behalf.

​Welcome to the first event in our new Gradient Gatherings series, to be held at the Sydney Knowledge Hub on Wednesday 29th April from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

​The inquiry

​When we delegate to other people, we have ways of knowing whether to trust them, and systems in place for when that trust breaks down: professional standards, legal liability, regulation, reputation. We also rely on something more basic: a shared human nature that lets us read competence and intent in one another.

​Now, increasingly, whole areas of judgement, planning, and action are being delegated to AI agents: systems that can take a goal, work out how to achieve it, and go off and execute across multiple steps and systems, faster than any person and at scales we couldn't achieve before. They're already starting to change what's possible. But they aren't people. They don't reason in the same ways we do, they don't fail the way we do, and the infrastructure we've built for justifying trust in human delegates may not carry over the way we expect.

​So it's worth pausing to ask: how do we learn to place our trust wisely as we undergo these transformations? What do we want to preserve along the way? And what new possibilities might we imagine?

​These are questions that affect everybody, not just those at the forefront of AI. This is why we think the best way through them is to bring together people with different experiences, concerns, and hopes.

​The evening

​The evening is designed for conversation. To help prompt the discussion, we're bringing speakers to address the topic from three angles:

​The science: how today's AI agents work, what makes them powerful, how they can fail, and where our understanding is still evolving.

​The possibilities: what becomes possible when we can delegate work to machines in ways we never could before, and what's already changing in how people work, create, and solve problems.

​The assurances: whether the rules, institutions, and safeguards we've built for justified trust in human delegates are ready for this, and what might need to change across law, regulation, organisations, and culture.

​We'll be announcing our speakers shortly, each chosen to bring a different lens to these questions.

​From there, the conversation opens up. Your perspective will help shape where it goes.

​The logistics

​Light refreshments will be provided from 6:00–6:25pm, with the session starting at 6:30pm sharp. We ask that you arrive before then as we won't be admitting latecomers once we've begun, to preserve the flow of the evening. The event is free, but numbers are limited, so please only register if you can commit to attending, and let us know if your plans change so we can offer your spot to someone on the waitlist.

​We hope to see you there to try to make sense of this, together.