MindFest 2025: Sentience, Autonomy and the Future of Human-AI Interaction

MindFest 2025: Sentience, Autonomy and the Future of Human-AI Interaction

March 12–13, 2025 | The Center for the Future Mind | Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

Join us at MindFest 2025, a groundbreaking conference exploring the nature of mind—natural, artificial, and hybrid—and the future of intelligent systems. Hosted by the Center for the Future Mind and located just minutes from Boca Raton’s stunning beaches, MindFest offers an inspiring environment for two days of philosophical inquiry and interdisciplinary dialogue.

This year’s theme, “AI Agents: Sentience, Autonomy, and the Future of Human-AI Interaction,” focuses on the rise of large language model (LLM)-based agents. These systems increasingly exhibit intelligent behavior across diverse domains, including workplace productivity, entertainment, and autonomy in complex environments. The film Her famously depicted Samantha, a highly personalized AI agent tailored to the needs and personality of her user, Theodore. Today’s AI agents—while far less sophisticated—raise urgent philosophical questions about agency, autonomy, disinformation, and the future of work and mind.

Key questions include:

•What does it mean for an AI system to act as an agent or exhibit autonomy?

•Can these systems develop emergent features such as sentience, greater intelligence, or selfhood? What are the dangers of misunderstanding these issues?

•How should we address the epistemological challenges these systems pose, particularly when deploying them in critical contexts like warfare, healthcare, and governance?

•How can we minimize the use of chatbots for hacking, propaganda, and information pollution?

Join us for cutting-edge discussions with thought leaders including Kristin Andrews, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Robin Hanson, Zoltan Istvan, Susan Schneider, Mark Bailey, Tam Hunt, Jonathan Schooler, Julia Mossbridge, James Hughes, and more.

Free admission for FAU students with a valid student ID.

Registration and sponsorship information is here:https://www.fau.edu/future-mind/mindfest/

Center information is here: https://www.fau.edu/future-mind/

Call for Papers

We invite submissions of abstracts and full papers on topics including but not limited to:

•What defines sentience, mindedness, selfhood, or consciousness in biological, artificial, and hybrid systems?

•How do autonomous and semi-autonomous AI agents challenge our understanding of work, agency, and AI safety? Could these systems ever feel or be selves?

•What are the implications of interacting AI agents in the larger AI ecosystem, including epistemology, emergence, superintelligence, and AI alignment?

•How might such AI systems inform and reshape theories of the extended mind and collective intelligence?

•What are the global security implications of AI-enabled autonomous weapons? How can we prevent a “race to the bottom” driven by global competition and the risks of AI actors making life-or-death decisions in war?

•How should content generated by AI systems be moderated?

•How do we combat the dangers of semi-autonomous bot-nets deployed by hackers?

•What safeguards can be put in place to counter propagandistic use cases? How can we increase literacy around deepfakes and generative AI without the “liar’s dividend” and other unintended consequences?

•Do transhumanist visions of personalized AI agents hold up, and how might they evolve in light of current technologies?

•Should (and can) humans merge with machines, as transhumanists like Nick Bostrom and Elon Musk envision?

Contributors from philosophy, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, security studies, and related disciplines are encouraged to submit. To submit please send your abstract and affiliation information to [email protected] by 10 Feb. and indicate if you are okay presenting a poster if the paper is not accommodated in the program. 

(Note: please book the hotel ASAP because March is the peak of tourist season. Most guests stay at the Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort in Deerfield Beach, Florida. This is where the conference dinner and party will be. Please ask for the FAU rate.)

Susan Schneider SchneiderWebsite.com
Director, Center for the Future Mind William F. Dietrich Distinguished Professor Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute Florida Atlantic University