AI Algorithms

**Why the Question Matters for Alignment, Moral Progress, and Long Term Flourishing** Practically nobody in alignment wants to say it out loud. So let’s say it: *AI might turn out to be* ***[more moral than us](https://www.scifuture.org/more-moral-than-us/)***. Now – why does that feel like a dangerous thing to claim? The question is not whether AI can match human moral reasoning. The question is whether that’s even worth bragging about. The idea of AI being more moral than humans is a real taboo in some circles. Many alignment researchers are uncomfortable with the idea because it seems to smuggle in the assumption that AI could have genuine moral agency, which conflicts with deflationary views of LLMs as “stochastic parrots” – and also because it sounds uncomfortably close to AI-worship or motivated reasoning for deferring to AI. Invoking this idea could get one dismissed as naive or as an actual safety risk oneself. *It’s also epistemically risky.* *More moral* – but in what sense? Knowing more facts relevant to ethics? Drawing better inferences from values? Applying principles wisely in context? Actually being *moved* by moral considerations, rather than just computing them? These aren’t the same thing. Conflating them produces both overclaiming and underclaiming – and most of the bad arguments on both sides of this debate do exactly that.[1](https://www.scifuture.org/why-are-we-afraid-to-ask-whether-ai-could-be-more-moral-than-humans/#6ebcc18c-d890-4a28-8b01-27945a532c66) An AI could plausibly exceed humans on moral knowledge, reasoning and even judgement without having anything like moral motivation. Collapsing these leads to both overclaiming and underclaiming. Clear distinctions between stuff like moral judgement and moral motivation makes the conversation tractable. Is it dangerous for public discourse? There’s a genuine risk that the framing gets weaponised – either by people wanting to justify AI authority over human decisions, or by critics who use it to paint alignment researchers as unhinged techno-utopians. It can also trigger motivated reasoning in both directions. A lot more could be said here. But the taboo is not protecting us from a dangerous question. It’s protecting us from the answer. The taboo itself is epistemically costly, yet if we ***refuse to ask*** whether AI could have better-grounded moral reasoning than humans, we prevent getting to the heart of the issue. ## **The questions worth asking** Before thoroughly assessing whether AI could be more moral than humans, we need to ask whether the question is even coherent. ### Alignment targeting and verification *What should AI align to?* Is morality a cohesive alignment target, or a family of overlapping intuitions that only look unified from a distance? And if there is a *fact of the matter* about moral improvement, *how would we know we were tracking it* – rather than simply laundering our current preferences with extra steps? More pressingly: what would it mean to *verify* that an agent has better moral judgement than us, given that we’re the ones doing the evaluating? This is the bootstrapping problem. We cannot step outside our own moral reasoning to assess a system that exceeds it. That isn’t a reason to stop asking – it’s a reason to ask more carefully.[2](https://www.scifuture.org/why-are-we-afraid-to-ask-whether-ai-could-be-more-moral-than-humans/#114785ab-004c-4882-b8c8-c0437942e9ec) ### The motivational gap Even if the epistemic questions could be resolved, a deeper problem remains: most human moral failure isn’t a failure of *reasoning*. It’s a failure of *motivation*. If humans are themselves imperfectly morally motivated, what does alignment to human preferences actually track? Not moral truth – at best, some weighted average of moral intuitions, distorted by power, attention, and self-interest. How much of human moral failure is motivational rather than epistemic? More than we tend to admit. We frequently know what the right thing is and fail to do it anyway – which means a system that merely reasons better about ethics hasn’t addressed the failure mode that actually matters most. And this raises the hardest question in the cluster: is moral motivation necessarily tied to phenomenal experience – to there being something it is *like* to care? Or could a system be genuinely motivated by moral considerations without felt engagement? Can motivation be grounded without being felt? ### The systemic stakes Finally, there are second-order questions that rarely get asked – about what happens to *us* if AI gets this right. Does sustained deference to AI moral judgement atrophy human moral reasoning capacity? And if so, what are the systemic risks of that atrophy – not just for individuals, but for the collective processes through which moral knowledge has historically developed? (There is recent work on comparative moral Turing Tests that begins to take this seriously[3](https://www.scifuture.org/why-are-we-afraid-to-ask-whether-ai-could-be-more-moral-than-humans/#6efcb4e9-295e-425c-8860-40f415ef4935)) Moral progress for humans has never been a purely individual achievement. It has happened through argument, conflict, revision, and hard-won consensus across generations. A system that resolves moral questions faster than humans can engage with them might not accelerate that process. It might short-circuit it entirely. I think asking these questions Socratically can help nudge the conversation into the open productively rather than letting it fester as an unexamined assumption. Also I think this line of questioning isn’t just intuition pump fodder, I think they are directly important to the project of AI alignment.[4](https://www.scifuture.org/why-are-we-afraid-to-ask-whether-ai-could-be-more-moral-than-humans/#13e5d2e0-79f6-42fc-8d1e-fcae403c2f6b) > Refusing to ask whether AI could exceed human moral reasoning doesn’t make the question safe. It just means we’ll answer it by accident, badly, and too late. Handled carelessly, this question causes damage. Left unasked, it causes more. ## Footnotes 1. The claim is easy to make sloppily. “More moral” conflates several things that need to be separated: a) Moral knowledge (knowing more facts relevant to ethics) b) Moral reasoning (drawing better inferences from values) c) Moral judgement (applying principles wisely in context) d) Moral motivation (actually being moved by moral considerations – which is one of my core focus points of activism) [↩︎](https://www.scifuture.org/why-are-we-afraid-to-ask-whether-ai-could-be-more-moral-than-humans/#6ebcc18c-d890-4a28-8b01-27945a532c66-link) 2\. This was brought up in an interview with Nick Bostrom [↩︎](https://www.scifuture.org/why-are-we-afraid-to-ask-whether-ai-could-be-more-moral-than-humans/#114785ab-004c-4882-b8c8-c0437942e9ec-link) 3\. See Eyal Aharoni’s and Danica Dillion’s work on Moral Turing Tests – presentations and interviews [here](https://www.scifuture.org/eyal-aharoni-breaking-the-moral-turing-test-studies-of-human-attribution-and-deference-to-ai-moral-judgment-and-decision-making/), [here](https://www.scifuture.org/ai-outscored-humans-in-a-blinded-moral-turing-test-should-we-be-worried-dr-eyal-aharoni-explains/) and [here](https://www.scifuture.org/danica-dillion-ais-moral-compass-better-than-expected-now-what/). [↩︎](https://www.scifuture.org/why-are-we-afraid-to-ask-whether-ai-could-be-more-moral-than-humans/#6efcb4e9-295e-425c-8860-40f415ef4935-link) 4\. The grounded values approach actually requires asking questions like: – What should AI align to?, Is morality a cohesive alignment target?, is there a fact of the matter about moral improvement, or is “more moral” just “more aligned with our current intuitions”? – What would it mean to verify that an agent has better moral judgement than us, given that we’re the ones doing the evaluating? (see work one recently on comparative moral Turing Tests) – If humans are themselves imperfectly morally motivated, what does alignment to human preferences actually track? – How much of human moral failure is motivational versus epistemic? – Is moral motivation necessarily tied to phenomenal experience, or could a system be genuinely motivated by moral considerations without anything it’s like to be it? – Can motivation be grounded without being felt? – Does sustained deference to AI moral judgement atrophy human moral reasoning capacity, and what are the systemic risks of that atrophy – both for individuals and for the collective processes through which moral knowledge has historically developed? Also see: **[Why Are We Afraid to Ask Whether AI Could Be More Moral Than Humans?](https://www.scifuture.org/why-are-we-afraid-to-ask-whether-ai-could-be-more-moral-than-humans/)**

''A Course in Miracles (ACIM)" is The Channelled Works of Jesus / Isa / Yoshua (Same Human Being - Named Differently by Different Religions) from 1965 - 1972. It Supplements and can go beyond anything The Bible, The Koran and The Torah has taught you. Find Out if you are ready to experience Spiritual Growth Beyond Religious Teachings (THE ACTUAL PROMISED: SECOND COMING) that have been Edited or Re-Translated over many centuries or EVEN Added to for The Suppression of Women. It Upholds the prophecies from those 3 holy books, but Clarifies More Deeply where they don't seem able to FULLY for the ordinary 21st Century human being, who finds it difficult to understand esoteric teachings handed down by Mystical Schools. You have free will to decide when you will commence your Journey HOME from Earth. We can Listen to Recordings of the above mentioned works. Alternatively, I also have DVD or CD recordings from Joseph Campbell, Deepak Chopra, Mother Theresa, Stuart Wilde, David Hawkins, Esther Hicks, Dennis Waitley, Gregg Braden, Wayne Dyer and Others. Topics that can be covered include: How "A Course in Miracles" came to be, Near Death Experiences, The Second Coming, The Evolution of Mankind's Spiritual Understanding, The Human Ego, Buddhism, The Christian Teachings EDITED FROM The Bible, Taoism, Ayurveda, Zen, Chi, The Bhagavad - Gita and Guided Meditations. This event is stated to run 3 hours, but those not able to can leave early and this would never be a problem. The Nature of THE BIRTHER (ETERNAL UNCONDITIONALLY LOVING SOURCE) and The Nature of OUR ESSENCES (SOULS) are Identical (Made in God's Image). The Insane Human Ego is THE ORIGINAL MISTAKE. Our Goal is to use THE POWER of REASON to UNDO IT, while on Earth!!!

**ATHEIST SOCIETY** \- Melbourne\, Australia\. ***"Could AI be more moral than us?".*** **Adam Ford** (Futurologist) will present the topic and lead the discussion. **Details**: [https://www.meetup.com/science-technology-and-the-future/](https://www.meetup.com/science-technology-and-the-future/) **Venue**: Unitarian Hall, 110 Grey Street East Melbourne. (Adjacent to the Epworth Freemasons Hospital). **Zoom** Meeting ID: 852 9852 4260 - - Passcode: 249550 All are welcome. Adam has invited us to come early (from 7.45pm) to socialise before (and after) the meeting. These hybrid meetings are on the 2nd Thursday of the month, 8pm. Convenor: John Perkins - Tel: 0411 143 744 - **[jlperkins@tpg.com.au](http://jlperkins@tpg.com.au/)** Atheist Society: **[Website](https://reason101.tech/Atheist/Society.htm) \- \- \- [Meetups](https://www.meetup.com/melbourne-atheists/)**

Are YOU Ready and Willing to go further along your SPIRITUAL JOURNEY, without forcing yourself to FIND TIME TO READ ABOUT IT? ''A Course in Miracles (ACIM)" is The Channelled Works of Jesus / Isa / Yoshua (SAME HUMAN BEING - Named Differently By Different religions) from 1965 - 1972. It Supplements and can go beyond anything The Bible, The Koran and The Torah has taught you. Find Out if you are ready to experience TRUE Spiritual Growth Beyond Religious Teachings (THE ACTUAL PROMISED: SECOND COMING) that have been Edited, Re-Translated across One or More languages or Added to for The Suppression of Women. It Upholds the prophecies from those three mentioned holy books, but explains Truth more easily than they are able to for the ordinary 21st Century human being. We don't need to know esoteric teachings handed down by Mystical Schools, to RETURN HOME TO SOURCE ENERGY. You have free will to decide when you will commence your Journey HOME from Earth. We can Listen to Recordings of the above mentioned works. Alternatively, I also have DVD or CD recordings from Joseph Campbell, Deepak Chopra, Mother Theresa, Stuart Wilde, David Hawkins, Esther Hicks, Dennis Waitley, Gregg Braden, Wayne Dyer and Others. Topics that can be covered include: How "A Course in Miracles" came to be, Near Death Experiences, The Second Coming, The Evolution of Mankind's Spiritual Understanding, The Human Ego, Buddhism, The Christian Teachings EDITED FROM The Bible, Taoism, Ayurveda, Zen, Chi, The Bhagavad - Gita and Guided Meditations. This meet up is stated to last 3 hours, but as some can be too busy for that length of time, you are welcome to leave early, without it being a problem to me. NOTE: LEARNING SPIRITUAL TRUTH can be strange and stir up The Human Ego/ The Fake Will for some on this planet, but without putting in the time to do so, our Spiritual Growth is HINDERED GREATLY!!! SOURCE ENERGY IS ETERNAL AND IS ALWAYS UNCONDITIONALLY LOVING. There has never been and there can never be The Wrath of God or a Final Judgement Day where The Creator, God, Allah, Yhvh or The Man-like Figure with The Long White Beard surrounded by Angels, who support Him as He deals out what The Ego believes humans deserve. WE ARE ETERNAL SOULS CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER'S SOUL AND SOURCE ENERGY FOREVER. WE APPEAR TO BE LIVING IN MORTAL BODIES ON PLANET EARTH AT THE EFFECT OF THE HUMAN EGO, BUT IS THAT COMPLETELY TRUE?

**ATHEIST SOCIETY** \- Melbourne\, Australia\. ***"Could AI be more moral than us?".*** **Adam Ford** (Futurologist) will present the topic and lead the discussion. **Details**: [https://www.meetup.com/science-technology-and-the-future/](https://www.meetup.com/science-technology-and-the-future/) **Venue**: Unitarian Hall, 110 Grey Street East Melbourne. (Adjacent to the Epworth Freemasons Hospital). **Zoom** Meeting ID: 852 9852 4260 - - Passcode: 249550 All are welcome. Adam has invited us to come early (from 6.30pm) to socialise before (and after) the meeting. These hybrid meetings are on the 2nd Thursday of the month, 8pm. Convenor: John Perkins - Tel: 0411 143 744 - **[jlperkins@tpg.com.au](http://jlperkins@tpg.com.au/)** Atheist Society: **[Website](https://reason101.tech/Atheist/Society.htm)**

Join us for an engaging evening at the next Melbourne Databricks User Group Meetup! We have a great line up of speakers for the night who will be sharing their learnings from implementing Lakebase on Databricks as well as a talk on Transforming Water Utility Operations with AI. **Speakers;** * **Shreya Sharma**, Solution Architect at Databricks: *A tour of Databricks' serverless Postgres for operational apps and AI agents and the headline features (branching, autoscaling, scale-to-zero, horizontal reads). Then a rundown of what's shipped in the last few months — Lakehouse Sync (Postgres → Delta CDC), scale-to-zero as the default, customer-managed encryption keys, and OTLP metrics/logs.* * **Derek Huang,** Solution Architect at Databricks: *Transforming Water Utility Operations with AI: from Reactive Monitoring to Real-Time Intelligence* Why Attend? The Databricks User Group is your chance to: * **Learn from experts**: Hear about the latest Databricks developments and best practices directly from industry leaders and experienced practitioners. * **Network with peers**: Connect with other data professionals in Melbourne who are passionate about data, AI, and analytics. * **Share knowledge**: Engage in discussions, ask questions, and exchange ideas with other members of the community. Event Details: * **Venue Host**: Vivanti Consulting, Level 20, Tower Five, 727 Collins Street, Docklands, VIC 3008 * **Date:** Thursday 11th June, 2026 * **Timing**: 5:30pm-8pm * **Catering and Drinks provided** RSVP today to secure your spot and feel free to invite colleagues or friends interested in Databricks and data-driven innovation. We look forward to seeing you there!

Hi Gophers! We're at Atlassian this June to talk carbon footprint calculations for Claude and building a custom Kubernetes PaaS in Go. * **Agenda** **5.45pm — Food & Networking** **6:30pm — Intro** **6:45pm — Talks** **8.00pm — Wrap up then head out for kick ons** * **Talks** **🎤 Mia de Búrca** **What I Learnt Writing a Carbon Awareness Skill for Claude** (short talk) Having recently left my senior IC job in tech, I wanted to take some time to pursue green software principles, in **particular** how they apply to our use of AI. Since I'm an engineer, and engineers learn by doing; I decided to build an MCP server using sustainable software practices, and have it serve up a skill that would let an LLM ask what **its** carbon footprint had been for the conversation so far. The talk describes what I built and why, and how the implementation **and** infrastructure were a breeze **compared** to finding some real numbers to back up the carbon equivalence calculation. **🎤 Ryan Djurovich** **How I built Podplane - an Open Source PaaS running Kubernetes on Object Storage** About Podplane: Want to deploy your app easily and securely on AWS, Google Cloud, or Proxmox? Podplane is an Open Source Platform-as-a-Service built on Kubernetes with all state stored in Object Storage. It consists of a CLI, etcd alternative ([netsy.dev](http://netsy.dev)), auth server ([easy-oidc.dev](http://easy-oidc.dev)), and next-gen auto-scaler ([nstance.dev](http://nstance.dev)) - all written in Go. \* **Interested in speaking at an upcoming event?** We will aim to have a mix of short (\~10min) and in-depth (20-30min) talks. If you’re keen to give a talk on a topic, share a project, or idea, please let us know [bit.ly/GolangMelbourneSpeakersForm](https://bit.ly/GolangMelbourneSpeakersForm)

We are meeting in the board-room of the 55th floor of 318 Russel Street (The Abode). I'll be in the lobby till about 10 past, if you arrive late call me on 0447 591 141 and I'll come down and get you. Join the group chat via https://imagineering.cc/ ## **🛠️ Meetup Format (2 hours)** **⚡ Project Intros (5 minutes total)** Each participant gets **1 minute (hard stop)** to briefly share: * What they’re building * What they want to focus on today **🚀 Build Sprints (90 minutes total)** We’ll run **three focused build cycles**: * **25 minutes** of deep, uninterrupted building * **5 minutes** of casual chatting, sharing progress, and asking questions **🎤 Demos & Wrap-up (10 minutes total)** Each participant gets **1 minute (hard stop)** to: * Demo what they built * Share learnings or next steps This format balances **deep focus**, **collaboration**, and **show-and-tell**, while keeping things lightweight and fun.

We are moving to a new platform and will be only running the new platform in 2025. please signup here: [https://www.downtomeet.com/Melbourne-Writers](https://www.downtomeet.com/Melbourne-Writers) This is the time to write whatever it is you want to write. \-\-\-\-\-\> IMPORTANT <\-\-\-\-\-\-\- We ask for the Nook which is to your left as you go in, but it is not always available. Ask for the table under "Mat Clarke". Sometimes we do not have an official host, so please say hi to people as they arrive and make everyone feel welcome. Thanks. No limitations. Come along and bring your laptop or pen and paper and work on whatever you want. There are no rules :) You can write. You can chat and write. You can share your work. Or not share your work. (If you need silence to concentrate then headphones are a good idea considering it is in a cafe/bar.) Coffee, hot chocolate, etc., available to buy. Also food and drink. Please buy something to show our thanks for the space they give us free of charge. There are some people that will want to chat, but most will be writing. So bear that in mind. See you there :) \-\-\-\-\-\-Please only RSVP if you can make it\-\-\-\-\-\-\- \-\-\-\-\-\-Un\-RSVP if you need to cancel\-\-\-\-\-\-\- We're booking the area, so we will need you to turn up if you say you are coming. Thanks. Thank you, Melbourne Writers. Great Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelbWriters Website: www.worldwriterscollective.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelbCityWriters Blog: http://melbournewriters.wordpress.com **Help us by adding to these social pages and site**

Welcome to WWDC Week! As is tradition, Apple has scheduled WWDC to coincide with our June monthly presentation night, so join us this Thursday for the post-WWDC discussions. Thanks to Mantel Group for hosting us again this month. If you're coming in person we're there with food and drinks from 6pm. We will be live streaming the presentations as usual from 6:30pm at [http://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/live](http://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/live) \-\-\- **Agenda** \| 6:00pm \| Food \+ Networking \| \| 6:30pm \| Event begins\. Introductions \| \| 6:40pm \| Marcelo Esperidiao — WWDC Recap \| \| 6:50pm \| Luke Tupper – Supercharging multi platform development \| \| 7:20pm \| Panel discussion on the announcements at WWDC \| \| 7:55pm \| Wrap up \+ social time at a nearby venue \| \* All times are approximate. Presentation order will be confirmed on the night. \-\-\-\- We are always looking for speakers and believe everyone has an interesting talk hiding inside themselves. If you are interested in letting that talk out at a future event you can get in touch on the website [https://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/talks](https://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/talks) or on Slack.

**Join us at the Melbourne Biz Apps User Group: Launch Event!** 🎉 We've been working hard behind the scenes, and the day is finally here. Come celebrate the launch of Melbourne's newest Biz Apps community with us. **🎤 Featured Session: Vendor Onboarding Agent with Copilot Studio** *Presented by Dharanidharan - Microsoft MVP, Engineering Lead* Vendor onboarding is one of those processes that quietly eats hours — manual document checks, back-and-forth approvals, risk assessments done in spreadsheets. There's a better way. Dharanidharan will walk us through how to build an enterprise-grade AI agent that handles vendor onboarding end-to-end, from document upload through to automated risk assessment and manager and compliance approvals. Everything tracked. Everything auditable. **Built using:** * Copilot Studio for conversational onboarding * AI Builder for automated document extraction * Power Automate for risk scoring and approvals * Dataverse and model-driven apps for full auditability This is a reusable pattern for anyone working with document-heavy, compliance-driven processes. Real architecture. Real implementation. **⚡ AI Bytes** Before we dive in, we've got some fun community activities lined up to get you inspired, warmed up, and ready to geek out. Come ready to participate! **🍕 Food, Drinks and Networking** Good food, good drinks, and good people, and we'll have plenty of time on the night to mingle, connect, and meet your fellow Biz Apps practitioners in Melbourne. **This event is for you if you:** * Work in Power Platform, Dynamics 365, or Copilot Studio * Want to see how AI agents are being built in the real world * Are curious about intelligent automation at enterprise scale * Just want to meet other Biz Apps practitioners in Melbourne We can't wait to see you there! 🙌

***Vibe out with your tribe, out. (No coding experience required or expected!)*** Join us for **Vibe Code & Chill: October Edition** on Sunday, October 5th, 2025. This isn’t your average meetup: no stuffy panels, no boring lectures. We’re here to vibe, imbibe, and make progress on our *projects-de-jour*: from AI experiments to Web3 hacks, AR side projects, or just messing around with next-gen tools. ***New to the crew?*** Expect a warm welcome and friendly face to greet you before introducing you around and helping you find your people. We keep it friendly, fun, and inclusive and with free snacks and drinks, you’re covered. Bring your laptop and your best coding mojo. **What to expect:** * **Chill coding & collaboration:** Bring your laptop and your current coding project. Find a spot in our comfortable booths or at tables with fellow coders. This is a space for hands-on work, casual discussions on the latest gizmos, and helping each other out. * **Free refreshments:** Stay fueled and hydrated with non-alcoholic drinks and a selection of snacks provided by the club. The pub has a great range of meals and drinks if you're looking for something more. * **Headphone-free zone (official hours):** You can code in your own world at home! We have a no-headphone policy for the first hour of the meetup. * **Flexible timing:** You're welcome to arrive early and get started before the official event kicks off at 2PM. and you're welcome to stay and vibe on as long as you like. No sweat if you can't stay the whole time, just pop in and join the fun for as long as you can! Come ready to laugh, learn, and grow with a community that's excited by design, tech, and innovation. This is your chance to make new friends, share ideas, and be inspired by fellow driven and generous minds.

**Melbourne Python's Meetup June 2026!** Join Melbourne’s Python community for another night of learning, sharing, and connecting. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been coding in Python for years, our monthly meetup is the perfect place to learn something new and connect with fellow developers. This group is for developers, data scientists, web programmers, and anyone passionate about Python. 📅 **When:** 5:30 PM, Thursday, June 11, 2026 📍 **Where:** Judo Bank, Queen and Collins Building Level 26/376-390 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia 👉 [https://maps.app.goo.gl/A9JQTYGrMqGn8AzAA](https://maps.app.goo.gl/A9JQTYGrMqGn8AzAA) **Note:** The entrance is next to Rustica Cafe. Press level 26 when you arrive, and you'll find us there! **Agenda for the Evening** **5:30 - 6:00 PM**: Networking **6:00–6:15 PM** : Welcome and logistics 🎉 **6:15–6:45 PM** - **Talk 1:** Javier Candeira - Principal Consultant at Infoplumbing on TypeScript for Pythonistas / Python for TS Devs. In this session, Javier will share cheatsheet-centric and concurrency-focused look at the similarities and differences between Python and TypeScript, aimed at developers who regularly switch between the two languages **6:45–7:00 PM**: Break – Connect with someone new! **7:00**–**7:30 PM** \- Abhijeet Kumar on Beyond RAG: Building an Agentic "Second Brain" with FastAPI\, pgvector\, and Gemini\. This talk explores Project NeuralFortress — a Python\-based knowledge management system that evolves beyond traditional RAG approaches using FastAPI\, Neon PostgreSQL with pgvector\, and Google Gemini for cognitive processing\. **8:00 PM**: Event concludes 🌟 **Special Thanks** 🌟 A huge shoutout to our sponsors **Judo Bank**, **AWS** and **Neo4j** for making this meetup possible. Your support means the world to us! **Interested in Speaking or Sponsoring?** We’d love to hear from you! Email us at **melbournepython@gmail.com** or fill out our speaker interest form at https://forms.gle/S5T1SL4ULY5aogf47. We can't wait to celebrate Python and the incredible Melbourne community with you. See you on June 11! 🎉

Too many kids as well as teenagers and adults have problems with study. Today's meetup will inform you about the basics in STUDY TECHNOLOGY that provides an understanding of the basics of learning and supplies exact ways to overcome all the pitfalls one can encounter during study. This is applicable to young children, teenagers (or their parents that are trying to help them) and adults alike. Study Technology shows how one studies in order to comprehend a subject so one can apply it. Laws on which learning is based and workable methods have also been discovered for anyone to apply for themselves or when teaching others. Too many students graduate from school and college unable to put to use what they’ve learned in school. It’s not that they’re stupid or that their teachers didn’t know how to teach. More than likely it traces back to the one thing missing from most educations—learning how to learn in the first place. We all went to school, yet isn’t it odd that no one taught us how to study? The information presented at this meetup can help anyone improve others or his own ability to learn. It is a practical tool that parents and teachers alike can use to enhance a child's study performance. You’ll learn the barriers that lie between your own or a child's education. And you will very quickly learn how to overcome them. This technology will enable you or a child to pursue any subject with skill and confidence. Teachers who have "hard to handle/distributive " or slow learners in class will absolutely love the amazing turn around most often seen in improved behaviour and student performance in class. If you or your child has difficulties at school (or learning new things at work or online) than this meetup is important to you. If you can not make it to our meetup than contact the organizer and arrange it to suit your time. This technology can if one was to live far away be taught online. (extension course) You may offcourse also opt to have this technology taught to your own child by experienced volunteeer staff or learn about this yourself and transfer this knowledge to those you want to have better grades. Yes it is possible to improve anyone's study performance. All it takes is just 5 steps. See you at this meetup. Pam

Important: Register on [AICamp website](https://www.aicamp.ai/event/eventdetails/W2026061814) is required for admission. **Description:** Welcome to the AI meetup in Washington DC. Join us for deep dive tech talks on AI, GenAI, LLMs and Agents, hands-on experiences on code labs, workshops, and networking with speakers and fellow developers. **Agenda:** \* 5:30pm\~6:00pm: Checkin, Food/drink and networking \* 6:00pm\~8:00pm: Tech talks and Q&A \* 8:00pm: Happy Hour at Courthouse Social (cross the street) **Tech Talk: Secure Developer Environments in the Age of AI Agents** **Speaker:** Patrick Brown (Coder) **Abstract:** Federal engineering teams are under pressure to ship faster while meeting some of the most demanding security and compliance requirements in the world. In this talk, Patrick Brown of Coder explores how cloud development environments (CDEs) give agencies a foundation to accelerate software delivery without sacrificing control — and why that foundation matters even more as AI-powered coding agents enter the workflow. He'll cover how CDEs keep source code off endpoints, enforce zero-trust access patterns, and provide the consistent, ephemeral infrastructure that both human developers and AI agents need to operate safely at scale. **Speakers:** Stay tuned as we are updating speakers and schedules. If you have a keen interest in speaking to our community, we invite you to submit topics for consideration: [Submit Topics](https://forms.gle/JkMt91CZRtoJBSFUA) **Sponsors:** We are actively seeking sponsors to support AI developers community. Whether it is by offering venue spaces, providing food, or cash sponsorship. Sponsors will not only speak at the meetups, receive prominent recognition, but also gain exposure to our extensive membership base of 5,000+ AI developers in D.C and 500K+ worldwide.

**CAIRN Launch Meeting** **Community AI Research Network** **Humans + AI Solving Real-World Problems** **Date: June 13, 2026** **Time: 1:00 PM–3:00 PM** **Location: Bull Run Library, Manassas, Virginia** **1:00 PM – Welcome & Networking (20 min)** * **Meet members and introductions** * **Why you joined CAIRN** * **Networking** **Icebreaker: “What problem would you like AI to help solve?”** **1:20 PM – Welcome to CAIRN (15 min)** **Presenter: Edith Mbuyi** **Topics:** * **CAIRN’s mission and vision** * **AI for community impact** * **Member opportunities** * **Future projects and publications** **Motto: Research. Discuss. Create. Publish. Solve.** **1:35 PM – Meet the AI Team (20 min)** **Overview of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Grok, and NotebookLM.** **Discussion:** * **Strengths of each tool** * **Comparing perspectives** * **Fact-checking and responsible use** * **Importance of human judgment** **1:55 PM – Live AI Demonstration (25 min)** **Challenge: “How can communities better prepare students for the future workforce?”** **Activities:** * **Compare AI responses** * **Evaluate recommendations** * **Build a draft action plan** **2:20 PM – Break (10 min)** **2:30 PM – Small Group Research Challenge (20 min)** **Teams explore topics such as education, healthcare, transportation, digital equity, business, senior services, or safety.** **Each group:** 1. **Defines a problem** 1. **Uses AI to explore solutions** 1. **Discusses findings** 1. **Recommends an action** **2:50 PM – Group Presentations** **Share problem, AI findings, recommendation, and next steps.** **2:55 PM – Building CAIRN’s Future** **Discuss meeting topics, speakers, research teams, publications, and membership.** **3:00 PM – Closing** **Founding Question: “What challenge should CAIRN tackle next?”** **Collect contact information and invite attendees to become Founding Members.** **Goals** **✅ Learn collaborative AI research** **✅ Explore multiple AI systems** **✅ Connect with innovators** **✅ Develop real-world solutions** **✅ Help shape CAIRN’s future** **Community AI Research Network** **Humans + AI Solving Real-World Problems** **Research. Discuss. Create. Publish. Solve**

Join us for another session of our study group as we cover the book Build a Reasoning Model (from Scatch). In this session, we will try to cover Chapter 1 titled "Understanding Reasoning Models", which defines what a Reasoning Model is and Chapter 2, on "Generating Text with an LLM". This isn't just a lecture! Come ready to ask questions, share insights, and code along. Whether you're a beginner or have some experience, this is the perfect opportunity to continue to learn together. If you plan to work with the code on your own laptop during the session, try and download the code from it's GitHub repository at https://github.com/rasbt/reasoning-from-scratch ahead of time.

For decades, application security has been built around a simple assumption: humans are the primary producers of software. We train developers, review their pull requests, model threats in design meetings, and build controls around human decision-making. That assumption is rapidly breaking down. As AI coding assistants evolve into autonomous software agents, organizations will gain access to an effectively unlimited engineering workforce capable of producing software at a speed no human team can match. The pressure to adopt these systems will be driven not by curiosity, but by competition. Companies that successfully harness agentic development will ship faster, iterate faster, and potentially outpace those that do not. This shift forces a fundamental rethinking of application security. The future of AppSec is not securing developers—it is governing an agentic workforce. Threat modeling, code review, security testing, and change management will not disappear, but they will need to operate at machine speed and increasingly be performed by systems rather than people. In this talk, Ken Johnson, CTO of DryRun Security, explores what the next decade of application security may look like, the assumptions that will no longer hold, and why security professionals must understand these systems deeply if they hope to influence the future rather than react to it.

Looking for a quiet, focused space to write? Come be part of our writing group—a dedicated time just for writing alongside fellow writers in your community. No readings, no critiques, no peer-review—just you writing within a supportive atmosphere. 7pm-7:15pm: Find your seat, set up your writing station, quick intro's. 7:15pm-8:45 pm: An hour and a half of silent focused writing. 8:45pm-9pm: Quick debrief, pack and head home. Can't wait to see you! :)

[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“Can Artificial Intelligence ‘See’?”** A look at how humans and artificial intelligence systems interpret the visual world in fundamentally different ways, with Arryn Robbins, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Richmond and cognitive scientist who researches visual attention, perception, and category learning. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-can-AI-see](https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-can-AI-see) .] Artificial intelligence can now identify faces, categorize objects, describe scenes, and outperform humans on certain visual tasks. But does AI actually “see” the world the way that people do? Or does it arrive at correct answers using representations that differ markedly from human perception? Join Arryn Robbins of the University of Richmond for a fascinating exploration of how humans and AI construct meaning from visual information and a look at comparisons between human perception and AI that reveal just how dynamic and context-dependent our own visual systems really are. Dr. Robbins, who previously has given excellent Profs and Pints talks on flaws and biases in human visual perception, will draw from research in cognitive science, visual perception, and AI vision systems. She’ll explain how human perception is not merely a simple recording of the world, but an active process shaped by expectations, context, goals, and recent experience. You’ll learn how humans form flexible mental representations that allow us to recognize objects across changing environments and conditions, and why those representations continuously adapt as we interact with the world. Many AI systems, by contrast, learn visual categories through statistical patterns in data. They can produce impressive results, but sometimes they also produce strange and unexpected failures, and sometimes they classify images in ways that seem strange to us. Dr. Robbins will discuss what these differences reveal about the nature of perception itself, and why the mismatch between human and AI representations matters for technologies like self-driving cars, medical imaging, facial recognition, and automated surveillance. Important for anyone trying to understand the rapidly growing role of AI in daily life, this talk will explore one of the biggest questions in cognitive science and artificial intelligence: What does it actually mean to “see” and understand the world? (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: “Eye Farm” by Nevit Dilmen (Wikimedia Commons).