CFP: Synthese Topical Collection - Artificial Joint Intentionality: Skilled Social Interactions in the Age of AI

With the rapid progress in generative AI technology, we find ourselves at the beginning of an AI revolution. AI systems typified by Large Language Models (LLMs) invite us to treat them as conversational and thought partners. These systems will play an increasingly significant role in our social world. To understand their impact, this Topical Collection proposes to combine foundational work from philosophy on the nature of joint skilled action, including the role of social affordances, with the analysis of interactive AI systems that may have the potential to qualify as partners in social agency.

Many skills essential for us as social agents can only be expressed with others or involve others as social objects. The concept of an affordance, which picks out action opportunities in an agent’s environment, can be extended to opportunities for social action, that is, to social affordances that include other social agents presenting social action opportunities.

Given the conversational interface between humans and artificial systems such as LLMs, we can expect to perceive or rely on social affordances in human-machine interactions: AI systems such as LLMs and social robots are designed to provide social cues and thereby offer opportunities for the expression of social action. AI systems now occupy various social roles—as collaborators, companions, friends, counselors, and even therapists—raising a host of theoretical, practical, and ethical questions about their capacity to produce and interpret social cues.

Appropriate topics for submission include, among others:

- What are the commonalities and differences between human-human, human-machine, and machine-machine interactions?

- What is missing in interactions in which machines are involved in comparison with human social interactions? What are the practical and ethical implications? Can (and if so, should) artificial systems be trained to be skilled “partners” in joint activities with human partners?

- Can artificial systems based on generative AI technology (like LLMs) qualify as genuine agents and, in particular, social agents? How might social ontological accounts of group agency be brought to bear on candidate generative AI agents?

- To what extent do they genuinely present social affordances? To what extent do they have social skills?

- How should we conceptualize the abilities of artificial systems that may play roles in joint intentional activities?

- Does it make a difference whether a human agent conceptualizes the AI system as a tool, as opposed to a partner, in a joint activity?

For further information, please contact the corresponding guest editor: [email protected]

The deadline for submissions is July 31, 2026.

The CFP can be found here: https://link.springer.com/journal/11229/collections

Submissions via: https://www.editorialmanager.com/synt/default.aspx