Special Issue

We invite contributions to a Special Issue on Embedding AI in Society, to be published by AI & Society: Journal of Culture, Knowledge and Communication (Springer), https://www.springer.com/journal/146.

For inquiries and to submit your abstract and manuscript, please contact: aisocietyncstate@gmail.com 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a pervasive part of our lives. From autonomous vehicles and AI personal assistants to computer-assisted surgery and automated trading systems, we are relying on AI to help us make decisions and manage our personal and professional activities. In all these cases, AI promises improvements in productivity and safety. But AI does not operate in a vacuum. Given its integration into our daily lives and social institutions, AI is directly shaping socioeconomic structures and affecting the lives of many individual citizens in profound and often unpredictable ways. AI systems have the potential to reach deeply into our lives, affecting not just our productivity and safety but also our autonomy and dignity. In recognition of this vast potential for good and evil, we have organized a multidisciplinary symposium aimed at developing a deeper and more holistic understanding of how AI will and should alter society. Thus, a Special Issue on Embedding AI & Society is of significant utility and value.

Researchers from any discipline whose work relates to the social, political, and ethical dimensions of AI are invited to submit papers. The focus can be on conceptual or empirical work. Four themes are of particular interest:  

• Integrating ethics into AI decision making

• Safety with and from AI systems

• Providing transparency and respecting user privacy in data analysis 

• The future of employment in the age of AI  

We interpret these themes broadly to include many types of applications of AI across multiple domains, including but not limited to autonomous vehicles, healthcare robots, policing algorithms, and AI personal assistants.

Contribution Types 

We welcome contributions across the following formats:  

• Original papers (max 10000 words): Substantial contribution, theory, method, application. Contributions may be experimental, based on case studies, or conceptual discussions of how AI systems affect organizations, society and humans.  

• Open Forum paper (max 8000 words): Research in progress, ideas paper. Contributions may come from researchers, practitioners and others interested in the topics of the special issue. Contributions might be, but not limited to, discussion papers, literature reviews, case studies, working papers, features, and articles on emerging research. Papers published in the open forum target a broad audience i.e. academics, designers as well as the average reader.  

• Student papers (max 6000 words): Research in progress. Contributions may come from post- graduate students and Ph.D. students interested in the topics of the special issue. For articles that are based primarily on the student’s dissertation or thesis, it is recommended that the student is usually listed as principal author.  

• Curmudgeon papers (max 1000 words): Short, opinionated column on trends in technology, science and society, commenting on issues of concern to the research community and wider society. Whilst the drive for artificial intelligence promotes potential benefits to wider society, it also raises deep concerns of existential risk, thereby highlighting the need for an ongoing conversation between technology and society. At the core of Curmudgeon concern is the  question: What are the political-philosophical concepts regarding the present sphere of AI  technology? 

Important Dates 

Symposium: February 18-19, 2021

Manuscript submission: May 30, 2021

Notifications: September 30, 2021

Submission final versions: January 30, 2022

Online publication: Rolling, based on reviewer and editorial decisions

Submission Formatting 

You can find more information about formatting under the section "Submission guidelines" https://www.springer.com/journal/146. For inquiries and to submit your abstract and manuscript, please contact: aisocietyncstate@gmail.com 

Information about the Special Issue Editors can be found here.