Interdisciplinary workshop on AI safety / Centre for AI Safety, Newcastle University

The Northeast of England is increasingly recognised as an AI growth zone, underpinned by strong university research, expanding digital infrastructure and closer collaboration between academia, industry and the public sector. As AI adoption accelerates across sectors, this regional momentum brings with it a responsibility to ensure that innovation is matched by rigorous attention to safety, governance and societal impact. As such, the Northeast offers a living laboratory in which questions of robustness, alignment, accountability and trustworthy deployment can be examined in real world settings, connecting technological advancement with public value.

Against this backdrop, the Centre for AI Safety at Newcastle University invites expressions of interest for an interdisciplinary workshop bringing together researchers working across technical, social and governance dimensions of AI safety. The workshop is designed to create a structured space for dialogue between computer scientists, engineers, social scientists, business and legal scholars, philosophers and industry professionals who share an interest in the safe and responsible development of AI. The event will prioritise discussion and cross disciplinary exchange. Short position talks will frame key issues and surface emerging work, practical challenges and conceptual perspectives, with the aim of identifying shared research questions and opportunities for collaboration. Contributions that bridge technical and non technical perspectives, particularly those grounded in real world deployment contexts, are especially welcome. The workshop is open to academic researchers at all career stages, doctoral candidates and industry practitioners.

We look forward to fostering an engaged and critical community committed to advancing AI safety through interdisciplinary collaboration.

When: May 5th, 2026 9.30 AM  with networking lunch at 12.30
Where: Urban Sciences Building G.003, Newcastle University

To present, please complete the form found here by Monday the 20th of April.

Agenda

9.00-9.30 Arrival and registrations

9.30-10.30 Keynote: Laura Stoddart, SAGE PLC

10.30-10.45 Break

10.45-12.25 Presentations (Streams A / B / C)

12.25-12.30 Closing remarks

12.30-13.30 Networking Lunch

Stream A – Facilitator Dinara Davlembayeva (G.003)

• Will Yeadon, Durham University: Scalable Oversight in Physics: Detecting Coherent Reasoning Errors in Model-Generated Derivations
• Mohsen Naqvi, Newcastle University: AI for Neurodevelopmental Disorders Diagnosis
• Sylvia Crow, Northumbria: Can Code Be Your Lawyer? The Limits of AI in Law.
• The Anh Han, Teesside University: Modelling and Simulation for Evidence-based AI Governance
• Marjory Da Costa-Abreu , Sheffield Hallam University: Profit-driven Generative Artificial Intelligence for Social Good: A capitalist lie and a danger for our social fabric
• Theo Farrell and Toby Pullan, Durham University: How reliable are current interpretability methods? Recent work on CoT monitoring and SAEs

Stream B – Davit Marikyan (Edge AI Hub Decision Theatre, ground floor)

• Leonie Stüssi, Durham University: Leveraging Non-Criminal Law to Protect from AI Harms: An Example
• Imogen Forsythe, Newcastle University: Future Directions in Personalised Medicine: A Horizon Scan for Artificial Intelligence, Genomics-Based HealthTech
• Joella Lynch, Northumbria University: Citizen Centred AI (HCI) Who is responsible for AI safety in practice? Teacher decision-making in everyday use
• Michael Short, Teesside University: How reliable does the ‘Human-in-the-Loop’ need to be in a critical system?
• Federico Iannacci, University of Sussex: From Mindless Reliance to Appropriate Reliance on AI: The West Midlands Police Case

Stream C – Arturo Vega (4.022)

• Adam Brandt and Spencer Hazel, Newcastle Universty: Ensuring safety in autonomous clinical assistants for healthcare consultations: the role of Applied Linguistics
• Amany Elbanna, University of Sussex: Information Systems Shadow AI: Cultivating secrecy and preventing collective learning in everyday use
• Tejal Shah, Newcastle University: Computing From Performance to Assurance: Why Ontological Commitments Are Safety Commitments
• Ludovico Rella, Durham University: The decentralised finance of synthetic data: assets, infrastructures, subjectivities
• Ying Zhang, Newcastle University: Understanding AI’s double-edged effects: A characteristic-informed synthesis of impact pathways and boundary conditions

Participation is free but you need to register by the 30th of April. You can participate without presenting by signing up for this event through this page.