CFP: Philosophical Issues in Artificial Intelligence

Philosophical Issues in Artificial Intelligence Graduate Conference

We invite graduate students and postgraduates to submit papers to this year’s Philosophy Graduate Student Group Conference taking place in person on May 3rd & 4th 2025, at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 

The topic of the 2025 UofA Graduate Conference is philosophical issues concerning artificial intelligence, broadly construed. With the rise of AI in classrooms, workplaces, and our private technology, several issues come to light regarding its accessibility, security, bias, and traceability (among others). This raises several important questions about what citizens can do and what researchers should investigate at the intersection of ethics, science, technology, epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and political philosophy. The aims of the conference include: 

• Discussing and proposing solutions to potential threats AI could pose for private and public security;
• Understanding and criticizing the relationship between human labour and AI; 
• Considering the need for legislation pertaining to AI (its availability, possible weaponization against individuals, corporations, and/or governments);
• Defining “intelligence” and whether or not this is an accurate description of what we consider AI to possess; and
• Examine the limits of our exploration into how sophisticated we can or should make AI given the worry of the danger it could pose to humans
• The application of these issues pertains to but is not limited to, intelligence, consciousness, free will, morality, personhood, trust, scholarship and academia, art and authorship, etc.  

Keynote Presentations

Dr. Geoffery Rockwell, Canada CIFAR AI Chair and Professor from the University of Alberta.

‘Title TBA’

Dr. Luke Kersten, Assistant Professor from the University of Alberta. 

‘Title TBA’

To ensure a rewarding discussion, we strongly encourage submissions from all areas of philosophy and related disciplines including the digital humanities, psychology, technology, and political studies (among others). We especially encourage submissions from groups underrepresented in the profession. Funding may be available for accepted speakers.

Submission Guidelines: Submissions are to be received no later than March 1, 2025. Papers should not exceed 3000 words. Papers should be prepared for anonymous review and include a bibliography. Please send your paper as a PDF to [email protected]. In a separate PDF file, please include your name, academicaffiliation, e-mail address, paper title, and an abstract of no more than 150 words.