Emerging Risks of Conversational AI

Conversational interfaces such as ChatGPT are growing rapidly and becoming deeply embedded in everyday life. Alongside their benefits and opportunities, these technologies also bring unintended consequences. Some emerge immediately, such as privacy risks or transferring false information, while others might unfold over time, including the normalization of biased language or over-reliance on AI for social and cognitive tasks.

This workshop invites researchers and practitioners to reflect on these consequences and discuss how to design safer, more inclusive, and responsible conversational systems. We aim to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives from HCI, computer science, psychology, linguistics, sociology, accessibility, and ethics to collectively map harms, share insights, and identify risk mitigation strategies.

We invite position papers (2–4 pages following the CHI Publication Format) that present research, innovative ideas, or critical perspectives on possible risks and consequences of CUIs. Relevant topics could include immediate and long-term harms of CUIs, inclusivity and accessibility challenges across marginalized groups, people with disabilities, and users with diverse accents or cultural backgrounds, ethical questions surrounding personas and anthropomorphization, and methodological contributions such as auditing frameworks, inclusivity metrics, or co-design practices for responsible CUI development. Submissions can describe ongoing and preliminary work, disciplinary perspectives, or practical case studies relevant to the workshop themes. 

For those wishing to participate in the workshop without submitting a position paper, we invite them to email the organizers with an expression of interest, along with a short description of their experiences and interests relevant to the workshop.

• Submission Deadline: June 19, 2026

  • Papers or expressions of interest should be sent to: christina.wei@mail.utoronto.ca 

  • Please use "[CUI2026 Emerging Risks Workshop]" in the email subject line

• Acceptance Notification: July 3, 2026

• Workshop Date: July 21, 2026

• Manveer Kalirai, University of Toronto, Canada

• Christina Wei, University of Toronto, Canada

• Thomas Eßmeyer, University of Bremen, Germany

• Nima Zargham, University of Toronto, Canada

• Sviatlana Höhn, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

• Michal Luria, Center for Democracy & Technology, USA

• Smit Desai, Northeastern University, USA

• Minha Lee, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands

• Heloisa Candello, Inteli, Brazil

• Anastasia Kuzminkyh, University of Toronto, Canada