Beyond the Imitation Game

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).