AI and Transformations of Work

AI’s application across different domains leads us to ask: what must be done with AI at work? Its efficiency, reliability, and speed have led to diverging perspectives. Techno-pessimism claims that humans will be replaced, leading to a loss of employment and increasing inequality, while a techno-optimistic position sees the cooperation of AI and humans as emancipative, allowing humans to focus on meaningful, creative tasks. Regardless of the perspective, AI has implications for the value of work and conditions of work in the future. Through this conference, we aim to provide a social philosophy of AI and work, grounded in an ethical framework. Focusing on three axes of research, we’ll consider the history of the technological replacement debate, the conditions of work with AI, and the transformations of fairness and justice to highlight AI’s specificities. We aim to address developing questions within an emerging literature on AI’s impact on work. 

We invite proposals in French or English. The following disciplines are invited to participate in the reflection: philosophy, sociology, social history, economics, information and communication sciences, social psychology, ergonomics, computer science, robotics. Please send a 500 word abstract with a title, bibliographical references and a session preference to [email protected] by July 7th, 2023. Contributions not specifically related to these themes are also welcome.