The conference “Enactive approaches to LLM and human interaction” is part of "The effects of LLM interaction on TOM in digital and virtual environments" ICUB grant in enhancing institutional performance at the University of Bucharest, gathering a research team from philosophy, linguistics, cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology. The event will take place 9-10 October, between 10-20 PM, local time for Bucharest, Romania, on October 9th and 09:00 -13:00 on October 10th.

Regular presentations will be 30 minutes long, followed by 15 minutes long Q&A.

It will have a mixed format, in that speakers may choose whether they present online only or face to face at the event's location (if so, their session will enjoy a live audience, but it will also be streamed to remote participants).

We encourage MA students, as well as early PhD's and postdocs, to contribute research abstracts related to the event's topic areas. Abstracts should be written in English and should not exceed 300 words. Abstracts will receive full consideration if sent before September 27th, 2025 at the following address: [email protected]

We welcome papers that address (but are not limited to) the following issues:

Can large language models (LLMs) be genuine participants in social cognition?

· What misleads us into thinking they might be (claims such as “LLMs have developed theory of mind”, “LLMs have more empathy than human agents”)?

· Is it that anthropomorphism and distinguishing social interaction from social cognition are the wrong framework? Are LLMs linguistic agents? If not, what are they, models – and of what?

· What does “talking” to a LLM mean? What are the text outputs of LLMs?

· Is there any shared ground between LLMs and their human interlocutors? Do such textual encounters realize “narrative practices”? Or does narration, just like talking, change meaning and apply more broadly with the emergence of artificial text production?

· What are the costs and benefits of assuming LLMs are linguistic agents? How does this bear on “therapy” bots, and why could the “interaction” between a LLM and a person (not) be considered “therapy”? Do LLMS “care”, and need they?

All submissions will go through a process of blind peer review. (Please write your identifying details in the body of the email, and leave the attached abstract anonymized.)

We intend notifications of acceptance for the abstracts to be sent out on or before September 30th, 2025. The conference programme will be announced as soon as review is completed. For any questions, please don't hesitate to email: [email protected]

Conference Programme

Thursday, October 9

10:00 – 10:15 Opening remarks

10:15 – 11:05 Zuzanna Rucinska (University of Antwerp). Making sense with (digital) objects - enactive approach to introspecting and therapy bots

11:05 – 11:45 Vidar Bratt (Lund University). What would it take for LLMs to become experts?

11:45 -13:20 Lunch Break

13:20 (online) Saskia Neumann (Eötvös Lorand University). Can AI extend its mind?

14:00 Alexandru Dragomir (University of Bucharest). On moral expertise and the possibility of artificial moral experts

14:40 David Urzica (University of Bucharest). LLMs and their ToM Skills

15:20 Paula Oliveira Silva and Rituparna Roy (University of Porto). What Kind of Thinker LLM Could Possibly Be?

16:00 - 16:10 Break

16:10 (online) Seth Rojas, Demetrio Cantu-Alanis, and Jose Eduardo Perez Palomo (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) Should LLMs be treated as agents in Psychotherapy? An Enactivist Appraisal

16:50 (online) Duygu Aktas (University of Miami). Can Large Language Models Have Meaningful Communications?

17:30 (online) Daniel Shussett and Shaun Respess (North Carolina State University). An Enactivist Approach to Intersubjective Trust in Superintelligent Social Robots

18:10 -18:30 Break

18:30 KEYNOTE: Daniel Hutto (University of Wollongong)- Thinking About and With AI

Friday, October 10

10:00 Mircea Dumitru (University of Bucharest). How we talk about people's opinions – critical considerations on the paratactic interpretation of indirect speech and the attribution of propositional attitudes.

10:40 (online) Leonardo Santa Maria (UCL London). Rethinking LLMs: From Anthropomorphic Evaluation to Infrastructural Transformation.

11:20 (online) Nicola Weiss (University of Edinburgh).Do U

12:00- 12:30 Break

12.30 -13:45 Roundtable

(Ana Cimpoieru, Elena Roşu, Daniel Stancu, Micah Pimaro Thomas, Anca Moraru, Alexandra Ioana Din, Costin Stegariu)

13:45 Concluding Remarks