My primary research interest is in ensuring that the algorithms used to mediate our shared epistemic systems are aligned with human values, as well as figuring out the extent to which this is important. In particular, I seek to use methods from computational social choice and mechanism design. Other areas of interest include: opinion dynamics, information cascades, computational argumentation, deliberative democracy and improving institutional decision-making. My background is in probability and statistics.
King's College London
| Group | |
| Topic | The Use of Spatial Preference Models in Bridging Systems |
| Supervisors |
Student representative on Staff-Student Liaison Committees for the STAI CDT and Department of Informatics (2021-23).
The University of Melbourne
| Specialisation | Statistics & Stochastic Processes |
| Minor | Pure Mathematics |
| Supervisor | |
| Thesis | |
| Grade | First Class Honours |
Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute
Completed two honours-level subjects.
The University of Melbourne
| Major | Mathematics & Statistics |
| Specialisation | Statistics & Stochastic Processes |
| Grade | First Class Honours |
The University of Melbourne
St Leonard's College
| Grade | 43/45 (equivalent to notional ATAR of 99.60) |
Mathematics & Statistics School Tutor
| 2019, 2020 | |
| 2020 | |
| 2020 | Psychological Science: Theory & Practice (guest seminars) |
Student Study Assistant
Academic tutoring and library support for students after school, on weekends and during school holidays.
Private Academic Tutor
Mainly in Mathematics, Physics and Economics. Students ranged from high school to university postgraduate level. Over 300 hours of tutoring experience.
Technical Analyst
Working on a comprehensive review of methods to evaluate the extent to which recommender systems are implicated in the spread of illegal content.
Data Scientist
Developing novel statistical methods, reporting infrastructure and interactive graphs (in d3.js) to enable stakeholders to extract value from a perennial survey measuring resilience and mental health in Australian school students.
International Evaluator & Future Scene Writer
Evaluating written competition booklets and writing Future Scenes at state, national & international levels.
Research Associate (Machine Learning & Statistics)
Machine learning and other research as part of a group working to improve the quality of reasoning in intelligence organisations.
Built Navigator, a prototype application that uses argument mining to augment analysts’ abilities to extract insight from large document corpora.
Co-facilitated the collaboration of over 100 Australian academics that led to the Roadmap to Recovery report, advising the National Cabinet on strategies for COVID-19 pandemic recovery.
Helped run the 2020 Hunt Challenge, a study that demonstrated that crowdsourced teams can produce analysis of comparable quality to that of professional intelligence analysts.
Helped conduct a major Delphi method expert elicitation on the nature of analytic rigour in intelligence work, along with its contributing factors and opportunities for improvement.
Conducted research in accordance with open science principles, pre-registering studies (1, 2) and sharing data.
Data Visualisation
Working with epidemiologist Tony Blakely to communicate modelling of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks, vaccination, and the consequences of government lockdowns to the public via an interactive web tool.
Research Assistant
Used D3.js to visualise phase space in protein crystallisation. Originally 6-month appointment through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), with several stints of follow-up work.
Research Assistant
Worked with A/Prof. Tony Wirth and Dr James Saunderson in the Department of Computing and Information Systems on algorithms for the finding of densest subgraphs.
Stochastic Modelling
Fixed-term Summer project, stochastically modelling mortalities for a new retirement income product.
Treasurer, Members' Council
Founding Editor
Establishing an Australia-centric online publication for clear and accessible communication of quantitative topics in the public interest.
Research & Computational Support
Building an accessible online tool for performing stratified random selection.
Moderniser of Evaluator Resources
Provided technical advice on the adoption/creation of an electronic evaluation platform. Previously, I rewrote the Evaluator Handbook.
Director
Videographer
Produced three short videos to help explain and promote the work of the team from The University of Melbourne entering the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition.
Peer Support Leader
SCOPE Leader
Mentored an overly reserved grade three student.
The University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne
Biomedical Research Victoria
The University of Melbourne
Future Problem Solving Program Australia
The University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne
St Leonard's College
St Leonard's College
St Leonard's College
St Leonard's College
Future Problem Solving Program Australia
Centre for Doctoral Training in Safe & Trusted AI
| Sponsor | |
| Value | ≈ £43,180 / year |
Artificial Intelligence for Decision Making Initiative (Phase 2)
| Sponsor | Office of National Intelligence, Commonwealth of Australia |
| Value | $50,000 |
Artificial Intelligence for Decision Making Initiative (Phase 1)
| Sponsor | Office of National Intelligence, Commonwealth of Australia |
| Value | $20,000 |
L Thorburn, M Polukarov and C Ventre
[preprint], 2022.
L Thorburn and A Kruger
1st International Workshop on Argumentation & Machine Learning (ArgML) 3208(1), 2022.
A Kruger, L Thorburn and T van Gelder
Intelligence and National Security 37(2), 2022.
N Rosa, M Ristic, L Thorburn, GJ Abrahams, B Marshall, CJ Watkins, A Kruger, A Khassapov and J Newman
Crystals 10(2), 2020.
L Thorburn
Submission to the Prefiguration Working Group for the International Observatory on Information and Democracy, 2022.
A Kruger, T van Gelder and L Thorburn
Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis, 2021.
A Barnett, T Primoratz, R de Rozario, M Saletta, L Thorburn and T van Gelder (alphabetical)
Hunt Lab for Intelligence Research, 2021.
L Thorburn
Hunt Lab for Intelligence Research, 2021.
L Thorburn, J Stray, and P Bengani
Understanding Recommenders, Center for Human-Compatible AI, 2022.
P Bengani, J Stray, and L Thorburn
Tech Policy Press, 2022.
L Thorburn, J Stray, and P Bengani
Understanding Recommenders, Center for Human-Compatible AI, 2022.
L Thorburn, J Stray, and P Bengani
Tech Policy Press, 2022.
P Bengani, J Stray, and L Thorburn
Understanding Recommenders, Center for Human-Compatible AI, 2022.
L Thorburn, J Stray, and P Bengani
Understanding Recommenders, Center for Human-Compatible AI, 2022.
L Thorburn, P Bengani and J Stray
Understanding Recommenders, Center for Human-Compatible AI, 2022.
L Thorburn, 2020-2021.
L Thorburn, 2020.
L Thorburn, 2020.
L Thorburn, 2019-2022.
L Thorburn, 2019.
L Thorburn, 2019-2020.
L Thorburn, 2018.
L Thorburn, 2017.
AGI Safety Reading Group, Imperial College London
AI Ethics Reading Group, KCL
Sensemaking Systems Symposium, UTS
Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics
London, UK
Cardiff, UK
Online
UKRI CDT in Safe and Trusted AI, Imperial College London
London, UK
Jesus College, University of Oxford and Goodenough College
Venice, Italy
One of 6 members from Goodenough College selected by Dr Julie Maxton, the Executive Director of the Royal Society, to participate.
Center for the History of Political Economy, Duke University
Raleigh, US
One of 32 selected to participate in the second week.
Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford
Oxford, UK
Online
Online
Online
London, UK
Brisbane, Australia
Barcelona, Spain