The Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (JAES) has awarded €1.4 million to Tampere University’s EVIL-AI project, which investigates and mitigates the potential negative impacts of AI agents. Known as “EVIL-AI” (also called “evil eye”), this initiative focuses on identifying risks posed by AI systems and ensuring their ethical use.

Receiving the largest grant in JAES’s second 2024 funding round, the project is led by Professor Henri Pirkkalainen, Professor Pekka Abrahamsson, and Associate Professor Johanna Virkki. Their expertise spans Information and Knowledge Management, Software Engineering, and Gamification. Pirkkalainen is part of the Faculty of Management and Business, while Abrahamsson and Virkki are based in the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University.

The four-year EVIL-AI project focuses on AI agents, autonomous software systems that can perform tasks without human oversight. While these technologies offer significant benefits, they also present challenges. The project seeks to pinpoint potential dangers associated with AI agents, particularly unethical or harmful behavior. The goal is to explore how AI systems can be responsibly managed to prevent misuse, laying the groundwork for stronger safeguards and ethical guidelines.