Responsible Robotics: agency, virtues and art

Responsibility Matters Workshop Series (RMWS) invites academics, researchers, industry practitioners, policy makers and NGO representatives to share research findings, prospective projects, field analysis or broad societal concerns revolving around the topic of responsibility. 

The 2nd edition of the Responsibility Matters Workshop Series (RMWS) explores the topic of “Responsible Robotics” at the crossroads between agency, virtues and art, with respect to moral, social and environmental stakes in an era in which robotic AI systems are beginning to permeate our day-to-day lives, from the job market and transportation, to education, artistic production, accessibility, surveillance and beauty, to name a few.

As the deployment of such technologies raises various concerns, this workshop addresses them from the mixed perspectives of ethics, art, philosophy of technology, and epistemology, revolving around questions such as: How much autonomy and agency can/should robots really display? How can virtue ethics inform the field of Responsible Robotics? What are the ethical concerns raised by the prospect of robot artists? What role can epistemology play in Responsible Robotics? How may technologies become probes to explore the great outdoors in an all-inclusive — yet responsible — fashion?

When: November 10, 15.00-19.30hrs EET (Bucharest time)

Where: hybrid event; on-site (at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest) and online (via Zoom) 

Who: Keynote speakers: Sven Nyholm (Utrecht University); Marinos Koutsomichalis (Cyprus University of Technology)

Guest speakers: Mihály Héder (Budapest University of Technology and Economics); Cornel Moraru (Bucharest National University of Arts)

CoMoRe team: Cristina Voinea, Radu Uszkai, Constantin Vică, Mihaela Constantinescu 

How: detailed workshop schedule is available on our website: http://comore.ccea.ro/responsibility-matters-workshop-series/

The event is organized by members of the Research Center in Applied Ethics (University of Bucharest), within the CoMoRe project (http://comore.ccea.ro/comore-project/). The aim of our two-year research project is that of exploring under what conditions could (robotic) AI systems be morally praise- or blame- worthy for their actions and whether the Aristotelian virtue ethics framework is adequate to address moral responsibility issues related to AI deployment.