People

Haydn Belfield

BA Oxon, MSc Oxon

Research Topic:

Bombs, Bugs, Bytes and Bots: What Determines the Relative Success or Failure of Arms Control Regimes?
AFFILIATION
International Relations Network
College
Brasenose College
Course
DPhil International Relations
supervisor

Haydn is a DPhil/PhD Candidate in International Relations, and has an MSc in Politics Research and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), all from the University of Oxford. His thesis 'Bombs, Bugs, Bytes and Bots' is on the history and future of arms control - what lessons from the varied success of arms control regimes for nuclear, biological and cyber weapons can be applied to international governance of artificial intelligence?

He has been a Research Associate and Academic Project Manager at the University of Cambridge's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk for the past five years. In that time the Centre tripled in size, and he advised the UK, US, and Singaporean governments; the EU, UN and OECD; and leading technology companies. He has over 30 publications with over 850 citations, including on climate change, pandemics, and societal collapse, but most of his work is on the security implications of artificial intelligence (AI). Key publications include 'The malicious use of AI: Forecasting, prevention, and mitigation' and 'Toward trustworthy AI development: mechanisms for supporting verifiable claims'. He is also an Associate Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (University of Cambridge).

Previously he worked in UK politics as the Senior Parliamentary Researcher to a Labour MP in the Shadow Cabinet, and was seconded to several general election and referendum campaigns. He was a Policy Associate at the Global Priorities Project (University of Oxford) and the first Development Director of the Centre for Effective Altruism.

Publications

Selected publications:

Belfield, H. (2020). Activism in the AI Community: Analysing Recent Achievements and Future Prospects. Proceedings of the 2020 AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Society.

Avin, S. & Belfield H., Brundage, M., Krueger, G., Wang, J., Weller, A., Anderljung, M., Krawczuk, I., Krueger, D., Lebensold, J., Maharaj, T., Zilberman, N. (2021). Filling gaps in trustworthy development of AI, Science.

Brundage, M*., Avin, S*., Belfield, H*., Krueger, G., Wang, J*. et al. (2020). Toward Trustworthy AI Development: Mechanisms for Supporting Verifiable Claims. arXiv. [* indicates corresponding/lead author]

Hua, S. & Belfield, H. (2021). AI & Antitrust: Reconciling Tensions Between Competition Law and Cooperative AI Development”, Yale Journal of Law and Technology, 23 Yale J.L. & Tech. 360.