CALL FOR PAPERS

“Communication and conversation”, this year’s theme for the AISB Convention, is a highly appropriate and timely theme for exploring aspects that are also at the heart of the AIRoNoS 2020, namely the intersection – and thus, hopefully, conversation – among the normative spheres of science, technology, ethics and law. These normative spheres are urgently called upon to spell out the implications for our societies of the latest developments in science and technology and in particular in AI and robotics.

In the past years, an increasing number of human intellectual activities have been replicated through AI technologies. AI actions, based on intellectual processes, have led to such technologies being used in a multitude of support activities in businesses and services throughout the economy and society. Big data and machine learning have led to increased progress in machines offering ‘cognitive insight’, classifying information, identifying patterns, processing of natural language, to mention just a few. Moreover, intelligent machines share now physically, more and more, the same space as humans, with automated vehicles, care robots, surgical robots, hotel receptionists becoming a common encounter. While the support that such AI and robotics technologies can bring to human activities is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, the normative – ethical and regulatory - environment needed for welcoming such technologies is evolving at a much slower pace and, with few exceptions, mostly in a reactive rather than a proactive manner.

Against this backdrop, the AIRoNoS 2020 Symposium aims to focus the discussion on the ongoing debates and the most recent initiatives addressing the intersection of AI, robotics and the ethical and regulatory normative spheres, with a view to supporting thus the development of socially-mindful AI and robotics technologies. In so doing, the Symposium aims to generate a platform of debate that brings together AI and robotics scientists as well as social scientists so as to engage with each other within a multi-disciplinary environment.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

The Symposium organisers invite submissions on all aspects of the ethical and/or regulatory issues related to AI and robotics and encountered within and outside of robotics labs. The issues covered include but are not limited to:

• ethical codes and guidelines in AI R&D environments;
• signals of the emergence of a new sense of ethics at the human/machine interface;
• relevant dimensions in considering the balance between human decisions and AI-based decisions;
• data-driven decision making and governance
• technologies for cyber security and privacy protection;
• ELS implications of autonomous robots;
• challenges derived from the AI enhancing of human senses and abilities;
• the challenges of re-distributing responsibility for accidents involving physical or digital AIs;
• access and exploitation of big data in relation to privacy and/or social justice;
• rights and incentives in developing socially-mindful AIs;
• from moral, to legal, to electronic personhood: ethical, legal and conceptual challenges;
• types of responsibility at the human/machine interface;
• machine ethics and law-abiding algorithms;
• transparency – the white box/black box conundrum – normative implications;
• ethical dimensions of stakeholder consultation in AI and robotics;
• creating the social space for discussing alternative visions of the society–technology dynamics;
• governance and regulation of new technologies – who does the shaping, owning, benefiting from it as well as who has access to it and gets to make decisions about it; reflecting on the impact of AI technologies on society – where should we start? A top-down or bottom-up approach?

PUBLICATION

Contributions will be peer-reviewed. Contributions accepted for inclusion in the AIRoNoS 2020 Symposium will be published in the AISB Convention proceedings as full draft papers. Participants in the AIRoNoS 2020 Symposium will be invited to submit extended and reviewed contributions for a journal Special Issue publication.

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission of papers/abstracts: 17 February 2020

Notification of acceptance: 24 February 2020

Camera-ready submission of full papers: 9 March 2020

Submission of papers/abstracts will be done via: https://easychair.org/cfp/AIRoNoS2020

Symposium date: 7 April 2020

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Dr Aurora Voiculescu, University of Westminster (Convenor/correspondent – a.voiculescu@westminster.ac.uk)

Dr Allison Gardner, Programme Director - Data Science Degree Apprenticeship, Keele University (Co-convenor)

Prof. Tony Prescot, Sheffield Robotics / University of SheffieldProf. David Gunkel, Northern Illinois University, USA

Prof. Alan Winfield, Bristol Robotics Laboratory; Bristol University

Prof. Norihiro Hagita, Director, Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, Kyoto

Prof. David Gunkel, Northern Illinois University, USA

Prof. Joanna Bryson, Department of Computer Science, University of Bath

Prof. Susumu Hirano, Dean, Faculty of Global Informatics; Chuo University, Tokyo

Dr. Jack Stilgoe, Science and Technology Studies, University College London

(Additional members of the committee TBA)

FURTHER INFORMATION

Further information on registration, fees and travel will be updated on the AISB 2020 Convention page.

CONTACT

For all questions related to the Symposium and paper submissions, please email the Symposium Chair at a.voiculescu@westminster.ac.uk