AI
SAIN - UtrechtWeek 1 of a four-week AI governance discussion series, alongside the SAIN Utrecht lecture course on AI governance (November–December 2026). Each session builds on the lecture of the week before, but stands on its own, so join one or all.
Last Wednesday's lecture introduced AI governance and its main risks: misuse, loss of control and concentration of power. This week we ask how governance and technical safety depend on each other: which rules can only work if a technical tool exists to check them, such as evaluations, interpretability or monitoring, and what governance adds that technical safety cannot. We also ask whether the public can see enough inside AI labs to judge the risks. We pair the lecture readings with a short Science paper by 25 leading scientists from the US, Europe and China, including Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton, which sets out technical research and governance measures side by side.
Questions we'll explore
Format (90 min): Discussion in small groups and plenary. No presentations, no wrong questions.
Who can join: Anyone curious about AI safety and governance, whether you're new to the topic, a healthy skeptic, or already deep in it. No technical background needed, and no need to have joined the lectures or earlier weeks. You don't need to have answers, just curiosity.
How to prepare: This group follows the lecture of 18 November. Please reserve about 2 hours, ideally over a few evenings. Did the lecture readings already? Skip Part 1. Short on time? The ★ items (about 1.5 hours) are the essentials.
Part 1 (~40 min): the lecture readings
Part 2 (~45 min): the academic lens
Part 3 (~15 min): reflection
Attendees consent to filming and photography as participants in this event. By attending, you agree to being filmed or photographed, which may be used for social media, website, and newsletter content. If you wish to attend but do not want to be photographed, please let a member of our staff know during the event so we can accommodate this.