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AI-SDM Seminar Series: Using Machine Learning and Psychology to Predict and Understand Human Decisions

April 25 @ 11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Join the next AI Institute for Societal Decision Making (AI-SDM) seminar on Friday, April 25, 2025. Register now! 

Using Machine Learning and Psychology to Predict and Understand Human Decisions

Abstract: Machine learning (ML) methods provide increasingly powerful tools for generating predictions about human behavior. However, simply using off the shelf methods to generate predictions potentially misses opportunities to benefit from and contribute to the psychological literature. This will cover three ways in which theory and data can interact through ML: using theories to pre-train machine learning models; using theories to constrain ML models; and using unconstrained ML models to critique explanatory theories. These cases will be illustrated with examples from the study of human decision-making, discussing risky choice, moral judgments, behavioral game theory, and open-ended decision-making, and highlights from some recent work using large language models (LLMs) to predict human decisions.

Speaker: Tom Griffiths,Professor of Psychology and Computer Science, Princeton University

Tom Griffiths is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Information Technology, Consciousness and Culture in the Departments of Psychology and Computer Science at Princeton University. His research explores connections between human and machine learning, using ideas from statistics and artificial intelligence to understand how people solve the challenging computational problems they encounter in everyday life. He has made contributions to the development of Bayesian models of cognition, probabilistic machine learning, nonparametric Bayesian statistics, and models of cultural evolution, and his recent work has demonstrated how methods from cognitive science can shed light on modern artificial intelligence systems. Tom completed his PhD in Psychology at Stanford University in 2005, and taught at Brown University and the University of California, Berkeley before moving to Princeton. He has received awards for his research from organizations ranging from the American Psychological Association to the National Academy of Sciences and is a co-author of the book Algorithms to Live By, introducing ideas from computer science and cognitive science to a general audience.

Date & Time: Friday, April 25, 2025 | 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., Eastern Time

Locations: 

  • GHC 6115, CMU
  • Zoom (After registering, you’ll receive a confirmation email with information about how to join the meeting.)

Dr. Griffiths will also be available to meet throughout the day with anyone who is interested. Click here to sign up for a time slot!

More about the AI-SDM Seminar Series

Visit the Featured AI-SDM Events webpage to learn more about this seminar, see the upcoming seminar schedule, and register for upcoming seminars.

Upcoming AI-SDM Seminar:
  • Friday, May 9, 2025 | 3:00 – 4:30 pm Eastern Time | Giacomo De Nicola

Details

Venue

  • Zoom webinar

Organizer