CFP: Standardization of AI Ethics: Stakeholders, Values, and Profit

Call for Papers

 
With the EU AI Act entering into force under the New Legislative Framework, the standardization of AI technologies transitions from a conceptual goal to a legal mandate. In recent years, efforts have been made to evaluate the societal impacts of AI technolo- gies beyond mere legal safeguards, aiming to “operationalize,” “standardize,” and even “certify” ethics. At the same time, actual ethical concerns regarding the operationalization of ethics have grown. In the forthcoming conference, our main questions focus on hidden stakeholders, values, and how profit-making might interfere with certifying and standardizing AI technologies. 

The conference invites contributions regarding two main topics: 

• The certification of ethics, and
• Driving forces and power imbalances in the current AI ecosystem (especially regarding its governance and certification). 

Submitted abstracts should revolve around the following questions (tangential topics are also welcome): 

• How can for-profit companies working on AI certification support/hinder current industry practices?
• How does lobbyism influence AI certification institutions' relationship with the AI industry?
• Can AI be genuinely developed in conformity with normative prescriptions? 
• Can ethics be formalized or is ethics (in)computable?
• If (certain aspects of) ethics are operationalizable, does this mean, that ethics can be automated? 
• If ethics can be formalized, what role is left for the ethicist in the 21st century?
• How can we scale human control and oversight?
• Who are some possibly overlooked stakeholders (e.g., children, the elderly, the environment, animals) in the current AI debate?
• How can trustworthy AI evolve beyond the human-centric ideal? 
• If “profit” is the main goal behind technology development, how can ethics be truly embedded into industry-driven research and development?
• What comes after regulation (the EU AI Act)? What comes after certification?
• Who assesses the assessors?
• How to make sure auditing institutions are aligned with values and societal expectations? 

In addition to the previously mentioned topics, given that many discussions have been euro-centric in the past years due to the EU AI Act, we explicitly invite perspectives from other countries and cultures. Moreover, we want to learn more about certification and standardization attempts outside of the EU. 

     Important dates:

• Conference Date: 10-12 September 2025 
• Deadline for Abstract Submission: March 1
• Notification of Acceptance: April 1
• Paper submission deadline: May 15
• Feedback from editors: June 30
• Deadline for revised papers: October 3 

This conference is the final event of the philosophical sub-project of the KI.NRW-Flagship- project “Zertifizierte KI”. Please submit an abstract of around 1000 words (anonymized PDF) to ZKIconference2025[at]uni-bonn.de. Accepted papers will be considered for publication in the edited collection.