Since its release for public use, AI has been introduced in a significant number of industries, and many aspects of our day-to-day lives. Therefore, Beyond the Imitation Game student conference aims to bring together students and researchers in fields such as philosophy of cognitive science, psychotherapy, law, policy making, social and political philosophy; in order to further our understanding regarding the effects that mainstream integration of AI has had on the practice of psychotherapy, work-life, authorship (e.g. art and research).

The conference will have three different panels:

- Human and AI interaction: issues in cognitive science, psychology and philosophy of mind

This panel is dedicated to interdisciplinary approaches to the mind and potential impacts from AI use and Human-LLMs interaction: cognitive offloading, general and social skill erosion, anthropomorphism, human-AI social bonding (how it impacts theory of mind in humans, why humans assume - if they assume- AI minds). We also accept submissions that explore benchmarking understanding (both scientific and social), consciousness and cognitive mechanisms in humans and AI.

- Therapy bots and healthcare

Several debates have emerged with regards to the social skills LLMs may or may not have developed, such as empathy, theory of mind, compassion, sympathy, broadly understanding others, their goals, intentions, hopes and desires. Either lack of embodiment, opaque reasoning or the uncertainty with regards to LLMs mechanisms at play, may lead to misaligned, superficial therapeutic values, ethical and dangerous outcomes in the case of therapy bots. This panel explores how therapy bots may impact the users, but also psychotherapy in general.

-AI use on law and policy making, social and political philosophy

This panel explores the impact of AI on law and policy making (autonomous agents performing different tasks, authorship, academic risks resulting from AI use), but also how concepts such as agency, democracy, privacy and autonomy are affected by AI tools.

Aside from the aforementioned subjects, other topics of interest are: the interaction between humans and LLMs broadly construed, AI driven misinformation, AI and the educational sector, AI and inequality, and other connected issues.

The conference will take place on the 9th and 10th of May in Bucharest, Romania and online. Regular presentations will be 20 minutes long, followed by 10 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).

Conference Schedule

Saturday, 9th of May, 2026

09:45 Opening - Andrei Măşoiu (University of Bucharest, vice-chair -Faculty of Philosphy) and the organizers

10:00 - 10:30 Nida Gul Niazi (independent researcher, alumna of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University) The AI Prophet: Determining the Boundaries of Human Future

10:30 - 11:00 Monosree Chakraborty (independent researcher, alumna Jadavpur University, Department of Philosophy) Sovereignty at the Threshold of Speech: Large Language Models, the Foucauldian Confessional, and the Political Economy of Intimate Disclosure

11:00 - 11:30 Gabriele Giacomini (Università degli Studi di Udine) Against the Control of Minds: Why a New “Habeas Mentem” Is Needed

11:30 - 12:00 Matias Moisio (University of Helsinki) A Counterfactual and Causal Reasoning in LLMs: a Logit Lens Approach

12:00 - 14:30 Lunch Break

14:30 - 15:00 Johan Largo (University of Luxembourg) Towards a deflationary and operational view of intelligence

15:00-15:30 Laura Piccione (Università di Torino) Performativity, impatience and the death of hobbies: why there’s no such thing as AI art.

15:30 - 16:00 Bahareh Izadi (Concordia University, Montreal, CA) The Failure of LLMs to Participate in the Social Practice of Giving and Asking for Reasons

16:00 - 16:30 Break

16:30 - 17:00 Daniel Bjorklund (Western University Canada) [On the Intentionality of Artificial Minds: Two-Tiered Theories and the Human-AI Distinction] (tentative title)

17:00 - 17:30 Joseph Aron (University of Alabama) AI and the Intentional Strategy: Ethical Implications for Epistemic Practice

Sunday,10th of May, 2026

10:30-11:00 Florinica-Carmen Cioranu (Doctoral School of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy,University of Bucharest) Beyond the Imitation Game: Intermodal Ambiguity and the Unity of Sense in Perceptual Experience

11:00-11:30 Florin Cojocariu (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy) Language Models as Rendering Engines of a Textual World

11:30-12:00 Tymoshenko Volodymyr (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy). Large Language Models and the Crisis of Learning

12:00 -12:30 Cristiny Sasu (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy) Minds as Fictional Characters

12:30 - 14:30 Lunch Break

14:30-15:00 Maria Tudoroiu (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences) The relationship between humans and LLMs in the creative act

15:00-15:30 Victor Ionuţ Rusu (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences) Is phenomenal consciousness necessary for mindreading?

15:30-16:00 Gina Paraschiv (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences) Free your brain: Large Language Models and enactive psychiatry

16;00 - 16:30 Dragoş Manoilă (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy)ToM without ToM — Iconicity in Languaging with and by cats

Break

17:00 -18:00 Keynote Ines Hipolito (Macquarie University) TBA

18:00-19:00 Keynote Ioan Muntean (University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley) "Moral cognition, learning and imitation game in therapy bots"