New technologies, especially those based on artificial intelligence (AI), develop at rapid speed. In fact, AI increasingly executes tasks that previously only humans could do, such as communicating freely with others (e.g. Alexa), driving cars, performing complicated medical tasks, firing guns as part of autonomous weapon system, or even selecting job applicants. What is more, AI increasingly outperforms humans: on average, AI is the better driver and in some domains of medical diagnosis, drug development, and the execution of treatment and surgery, AI already is, or soon promises to be, better than trained medical professionals. However, despite great promise, there are also risks and costs associated with these new technologies, leading to intricate ethical, social, and political questions. This conference will feature some of these questions, with a particular focus on questions related to autonomy and responsibility.

The conference will take place in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford on 27-28 June. It is a hybrid event. In-person participation is limited to the restricted capacity of the premises. Those who may participate in-person will be notified separately.

This conference is organised by Maximilian Kiener, a Leverhulme early career fellow at the University of Oxford. It is sponsored jointly by the Leverhulme Trust, the Roots of Responsibility ERC project, and the Society for Applied Philosophy.

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Schedule

Day 1 (Monday, 27th June)

09.15 Welcome

09.30 - 11.00 Mark Cockelbergh (University of Vienna): Responsible citizenship, AI, and epistemic agency

11.00 - 11.30 Coffee Break

11.30 - 13.00 Maximilian Kiener (University of Oxford): AI and the Ubiquity of Responsibility

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch Break

14.00 - 15.30 Sven Nyholm (Utrecht University): AI, Responsibility Gaps, and Asymmetries between the Good and the Bad

15.30 - 16.00 Coffee Break

16.00 - 17.30 Geoff Keeling (Google): Ethical considerations for using AI generated synthetic characters to treat geriatric loneliness.

18.45 Conference Dinner at Balliol College

Day 2 (Tuesday, 28th June)

09.30 - 11.00 Rafaela Hillerbrand (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology): Janus-faced AI. Risk & Uncertainties when Dealing with Complex Systems.

11.00 - 11.30 Coffee Break

11.30 - 13.00 Shannon Vallor (University of Edinburgh): AI and the Imperative of Responsibility: Reconceiving AI Governance as Social Care.

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch Break

14.00 - 15.30 Judith Simon (University of Hamburg): Inquiring trustworthy AI: Can we trust AI - and should we?

15.30 - 16.00 Coffee Break

16.00 - 17-00 Summative roundtable discussion

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Call for registration

We encourage colleagues and especially postgraduate students to attend the conference. Please spread the word. All are welcome, and there is no registration fee, but space is limited. If you wish to attend, please register here on Eventbrite.

Please note that registering for the conference does not guarantee you a place; further information will be sent to everyone who registers. To make sure we have a full house, we allocate more tickets than there are places. We do our best to get the numbers right, but unfortunately we occasionally have to disappoint people. We cannot guarantee entry, and admission is on a first come, first served basis..

Enquiries about the conference can be made to Yuuki Ohta , Deputy Director of Roots of Responsibility.

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[Header image: Leonardo da Vinci. Study for an automaton (Codice atlantico, fol. 579r/216v-b). ca. 1490&s. Biblioteca Ambrosiana. ARTSTOR.]