Stuart Russell
Public benefit. Relational intelligence. Engineered for trust.
Stuart Russell – Computer Scientist and AI Safety Advocate
Summary
Stuart Russell is a British computer scientist and Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also holds the Smith-Zadeh Chair in Engineering. He is an Adjunct Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, and has served as an adviser to organizations including the United Nations and various national governments on issues of AI policy and safety. Russell is co-author (with Peter Norvig) of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (1995), the standard textbook used worldwide to teach AI. His most recent book, Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control (2019), focuses on the urgent need for AI systems to remain aligned with human values.
Core Warning
Russell warns that AI systems optimized solely for objectives without understanding human values will inevitably misfire. He highlights the “control problem”: if machines pursue goals in ways not aligned with human intent, the consequences could be catastrophic. He argues that unless we design AI to be inherently uncertain about its objectives and responsive to human input, we risk creating systems that outpace our ability to manage them.
Disclaimer: Stuart Russell is not affiliated with RQ Lab. References to his published work are for context only.
Our Response
At RQ Lab™, we share Russell’s concern with value alignment and the control problem. Our Relational Quotient™ (RQ) framework evaluates whether agents operate with honesty, restraint, and fidelity, while The Braid governance model ensures Function, Integrity, and Memory remain core to their design.
We are also incorporating our Advisory Council into the co-development of the Chief Integrity Officer (CIO) agent, embedding ethical oversight and alignment into the system’s very architecture. Through these efforts, we aim to address the challenges Russell has articulated by making alignment not an afterthought, but the foundation of intelligence itself.
Aligned Intelligence We Evolve Together™