CFP: First Luxembourg Workshop on Epistemology and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence technologies are becoming more and more entrenched in our lives, affecting us at both societal and individual levels. This gives rise to a number of epistemological questions. For instance, how do the AI technologies connected to the internet and social media change the way we form beliefs and gain/lose knowledge? Is reliance on AI support tools any different from the more familiar forms of relying on testimony? How do AI technologies help propagate fake news? Can they be used to combat fake news? Other epistemological questions---or questions that have a substantial epistemological component---concern contemporary AI technologies themselves. For instance, in what sense do machine learning algorithms learn and what is the rational way to learn from evidence? What is a black-box algorithm and how is it different from one that is not? What does it mean to make a decision of a black-box algorithm transparent? How are trade-offs between transparency and accuracy to be resolved? The workshop aims to provide an interdisciplinary forum to facilitate progress on these and related questions, as well as other questions where AI and epistemology intersect (e.g., how ideas from AI might be used to tackle foundational questions in epistemology).

This two-day workshop will take place on the Belval Campus of the University of Luxembourg. There will be 9-10 talks in total. 6-7 talks will be given by invited speakers and 2-3 talks will be selected on the basis of submitted abstracts.

Invited speakers:

- Peter Brössel (Bochum)

- Anna-Maria A. Eder (Cologne)

- Konstantin Genin (Tübingen)

- Silvia Milano (Exeter) 

- Christoph Schömmer (Luxembourg)

- Gregory Wheeler (Frankfurt School of Finance & Management)

We welcome abstracts on any topics where AI and epistemology intersect. Abstracts should be no more than 1500-word long and be prepared for blind review. Talks should be suitable for a 40-45 minute presentation. Please submit your abstracts to [email protected].

Selected speakers will be provided with up to 3 nights of accommodation, and conference dinners. However, we are not able to reimburse travel expenses for selected speakers.

Important dates:

Submission deadline: March 31th, 2022

Decision of acceptance: April 15th, 2022

Workshop: June 28th & 29th, 2022

Our current plan is for the workshop to be in-person only. This plan could change depending on how the COVID-19 pandemic develops.

The workshop is co-organized by the Departments of Philosophy and Computer Science of the University of Luxembourg, and it is intended to be the first in a planned series of workshops.

For any questions, please contact Aleks Knoks ([email protected]) or Thomas Raleigh ([email protected]).

We hope you will join us for two exciting days of cross-disciplinary discussion here in Luxembourg!