CFP: 2025 Bovay Engineering and Applied Ethics Workshop: AI Value Alignment

CALL FOR PAPERS

Papers that investigate philosophical issues related to AI value alignment are invited for the 2025 Bovay Engineering and Applied Ethics Workshop. Travel funding (up to $1,000) will be available for participants whose abstracts are accepted. Possible topics include:

• How moral uncertainty and disagreement impact value alignment;
• The role of social choice and public input in value alignment;
• Discrimination, bias, or unfairness in existing AI systems; methods for mitigating these issues;
• Methods for value alignment; methods for measuring value alignment (i.e., measuring the extent to which an AI system aligns with a set of ethical principles)

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

The Bovay Engineering and Applied Ethics Workshop Series aims to develop a community of scholars and practitioners interested in applied ethics, especially on issues that affect engineering ethics. The theme of the 2025 workshop is “AI Value Alignment." The workshop will highlight paper presentations from the invited participants, which will each be followed by extended discussion with other workshop participants. We are expecting to set aside at least two sessions for papers received through this Call for Papers, schedule permitting. The Department of Philosophy at Texas A&M University, which will host the workshop, is internationally known for research in applied ethics. The workshop is generously supported by the Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Foundation.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

The deadline for submission of abstracts is Friday, February 21st. Please send your abstract of no more than 500 words in the body of an email message to [email protected] with the subject line “Bovay Workshop.” Notification of acceptance will be sent by Friday, March 7th, 2025. If submissions outnumber available slots, a selection will be made based on the quality of the abstracts. In writing your abstract, please bear in mind that full papers should be suitable for a 35-minute presentation, which will be followed by 20-minutes of Q&A.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

The workshop will take place at the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas on Thursday, April 10th. The first session will begin mid-morning, and the workshop will conclude with the Bovay Lecture in the evening. Information about registration, the workshop venue, hotel bookings and other practical questions will be published soon. There is no registration fee and we will cover travel up to $1,000 for participants whose abstracts are accepted.

INVITED SPEAKERS

Arianna Manzini (Google DeepMind)

Pamela Robinson (University of British Columbia)

Rebecca Raper (Cranfield University)