GENIUS membres organised a workshop on “Meaningful Human-AI Interaction: Value Alignment“ at the Digital Society Conference 2025.

Value alignment aims to ensure that AI systems behave in ways that respect human values. Most LLMs, such as those developed by OpenAI, undergo value alignment before release through reinforcement learning from human feedback. However, in current practice, users are treated as little more than anonymous annotators—replaceable and disposable. We believe users can and should play a more meaningful role in aligning LLMs.

This workshop brings together researchers from LLMs, human-computer interaction, ethics, and healthcare to discuss user roles in LLM alignment. We choose AI research assistant as a case study and participants will engage in a conversation sharing their experiences and discussing human roles in aligning LLMs with their needs and values.”

The Digital Society (DiSo) programme “focuses on answering the many scientific and societal questions raised by the emergence of a digital society. All Dutch universities participate in the programme, which promotes interdisciplinarity around this urgent societal theme. Cooperation is actively sought with societal partners, through consultations, (team science) projects/tables and through the annual conference. The DiSo programme is organised interdisciplinarily around themes that suit the participating scientists.” More: https://www.thedigitalsociety.info/about/

GENIUS members organized the speaker series “Trust in the Times of Generative AI: Of Planning, Reasoning, and Collaborating“ at The Academic Fringe Festival (TAFF).

TAFF is an exciting concoction of invited talks and panel discussions around important research and innovation themes in Computer Science. This fifth edition is on "Trust in the Times of Generative AI: Of Planning, Reasoning, and Collaborating." The series features prominent researchers and practitioners whose work has made meaningful, interesting, and important contributions in these fields. 

Generative AI has transformed how people create, communicate, and collaborate, enabling new opportunities across industries like education, entertainment, and business. However, as these technologies become more embedded in everyday life, critical concerns arise about their trustworthiness, transparency, and accessibility. To ensure these systems truly benefit all, focusing on democratizing access while fostering trust in their use is essential. This involves designing AI systems that prioritize fairness, inclusivity, and explainability, allowing individuals to confidently interact with and influence their outputs. The challenge lies in making these technologies accessible and equitable, while embedding mechanisms for ethical oversight and accountability. By addressing these challenges, we can empower diverse communities to use generative AI responsibly, paving the way for meaningful and trustworthy interactions that align with human values and aspirations.

At the heart of this edition's theme, “Trust in the Times of Generative AI: Of Planning, Reasoning, and Collaborating,” lies a critical examination of how intelligent systems can be designed to act as reliable partners in complex cognitive tasks. As generative AI systems increasingly participate in planning workflows, reasoning through ambiguous scenarios, and collaborating with humans and other agents, questions around trust become central. Trust must be earned not only through performance but also through transparency, consistency, and alignment with human intent. This involves developing models that can explain their reasoning, adapt to diverse user needs, and work synergistically with human collaborators. This TAFF series will delve into how we can build AI systems that are not just tools, but trustworthy teammates that are capable of shared goals, mutual understanding, and ethical decision-making in complex and dynamic environments.

More: https://www.academicfringe.org/trust-in-the-times-of-generative-ai