PFAI 2022: Philosophy for Artificial Intelligence

Scope and Aims

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have begun to profoundly transform our way of thinking and use of language. They implicitly determine our perception of reality and understanding of our own human nature. The pervasive and ubiquitous algorithmization of our cognition and communication brings with it a host of new ethical dilemmas, subverts aesthetic canons and values, and confronts the uniqueness of human creativity. At the same time, the term „artificial intelligence“ is often used in a misguided way as a hollowed-out idol that raises many unrealistic expectations, from techno-optimistic and messianic visions to dystopian and apocalyptic scenarios.

The aim of the workshop is not only a philosophical reflection on the current use of AI and its fast implementation in all spheres of human life, but also an attempt to offer philosophical methods of investigation and theories that can be inspiring and useful for the very development of trustworthy and beneficial AI. Moreover, the workshop should contribute to deepening the dialogue between philosophers, computer scientists and AI developers.

The workshop should also contribute to the advancement and promotion of the interdisciplinary follow-up study programme in Philosophy for Artificial Intelligence, which has been implemented in cooperation between Dept. of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts and Dept. of Cybernetics and Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the University of West Bohemia since 2021.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Ethics and trustworthy AI, free will and explainable AI
• Autonomy, privacy, automation and digital nudging
• Philosophy of language, semantics and NLP
• Logic and symbolic AI, logic programming
• Philosophy of mind, consciousness and computing
• Aesthetics, creativity and synthetic art
• Perception, computer vision and image recognition
• Transhumanism, superintelligence and singularity
• Metaphysics, simulation and virtual reality
• Heteromation and human-computer interaction