CFP: Partiality, Relationships, and AI

Workshop on Partiality, Relationships, and AI
24 & 25 October 2024, Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU)

Jointly organised by LMU's research group in the ethics of AI (Prof. Dr. Sven Nyholm, Dr. Benjamin Lange and Lara Maszynski) and Oxford's Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics (Prof. Dr. Tom Douglas)

Interactions with AI systems increasingly replace our interactions with humans. We use electronic self-checkout services instead of relying on cashiers, ask personal assistants, agents, or chatbots for advice where we might have previously asked a friend or parent; and we even use chatbots to replace interhuman social interaction and feelings of connectedness.

These varied interactions with AI systems raise a number of important philosophical questions: can relationships with AIs truly replace the interhuman relationships they were modelled on? Which aspects of connections with humans might be lost when replacing humans with AIs? Are relationship goods such as intimacy, trust, and love attainable in human-AI relationships?

Moreover, we standardly accept that we are allowed, and sometimes even required, to treat our friends, colleagues and family members with special moral consideration. May, or perhaps should, we treat AIs that take on the roles of friends, colleagues and other intimates in a similarly partial way? And, on the flipside, how should AIs treat us if they take on these roles? Are they permitted, or required, to treat us partially in the way that friends and colleagues usually do?

This workshop addresses these questions. By bringing together researchers from the fields of the ethics of partiality, human-robot relationships, and the ethics of AI more generally, the workshop explores the ethical significance and limitations of the relationships we are increasingly developing with AIs.

Confirmed presenters include:
Helen Ryland (Open University)
Emma Gordon (University of Glasgow)
Anca Gheaus (Central European University)
Jeremy Davies (University of Georgia)

This is a pre-read workshop where presenting researchers share their papers in advance of the workshop so that they can be read by all participants. The workshop sessions then consist of a brief, and optional, paper presentation by the author (5-10 mins), followed by a paper commentary by another workshop participant (15 mins), a brief reply to the commentary by the author (5 mins), and 1 hour of open Q&A with all workshop participants. 

We have two open slots for the workshop. To this end, we welcome submissions of extended abstracts in English (750 to max 1000 words) on any topic relating to the ethics of partiality, human-robot relationships, and the ethics of AI as it relates to relationships and partiality.

Please send your anonymised abstract to [email protected] by 22 May 2024, 1pm CET. Successful candidates will be notified by the end of June. For the two successful candidates, the deadline to submit their final papers in advance of the workshop will be 20 September 2024. Accommodation and travel expenses will be reimbursed for selected speakers. 

We particularly encourage applications from candidates historically underrepresented in philosophy, such as women or candidates from minority ethnic backgrounds. Given two equally qualified applications, we will choose the one belonging to a candidate of a traditionally underrepresented group.

This workshop is kindly sponsored by the Munich Center for Machine Learning.