The University of Salento will explore in a series of seminars the contemporary debate on Human Nature and its development in philosophical anthropology and techno anthropologies. The University of Salento will concentrate on the ethics of AI and Robotics by organising a series of interdisciplinary workshops on topics such as ‘our digital nature’ and ‘Vulnerability and empathy mirroring in human-robot relations'. A public discussion will take place on the topic of empathy and digitalisation in the framework of the Naples Philosophy Festival.

The University of Salento will coordinate the work of every Research Units. In particular, the new hired researcher will establish networking activities in order to synchronously advance on the different four milestones. It will feed the research with anthropological results. In particular, it will explore power in terms of the political legitimacy of the term ‘human nature’. The University of Salento will organise a series of seminars on the idea of ‘our digital nature’, exploring its attractions and problems. It will also organise interdisciplinary workshops and seminars with the aim of introducing and discussing promises and legitimate questions and doubts. Furthermore, it will draft an important notion of ‘human’ which is both compatible with inclusive and moral claims and applicable to the digital transition. Finally, the university of Salento will draft and discuss the questionnaires with the other three Research Units and elaborate the inputs from the participants.

The University of Naples will work on the concept of ‘empathy’ with a focus on the immediate and mimetic dimension on the one hand, and the imaginative and narrative dimension on the other. The aim is to understand certain implications, including negative ones, of empathy when it is used without being backed up by a critical approach. The results will be validated by comparison with laboratory practices and analyses conducted by the neuroscience working group and by the ‘Permanent Seminar on Ethical Theories’ of the Naples DSU.

The University of Naples will lead the implementation of deliverable organize the seminar series on ‘Empathy for inanimate objects in the History of Philosophy’. In the first phase of the project, the concept of empathy will thus be characterized with reference to historical, gnoseological and ethical issues. The results of these meetings will then be collected in the final phase of the project to contribute to the dissemination of the project results . In the second phase, based on the results of the conducted survey, the concept of empathy will be characterized in relation to the challenges posed by Robotics and AI. A workshop will be organized on ‘Human-Robot Interaction: Ethical Issues of Artificial Empathy’. It will include: psychologists, neuroscientists, authors, historians and film directors.The University of Naples will also organize the annual ‘Conversations of Philosophy Festival’ under the patronage of Guida Publisher in Naples, on the relationship between humans and AI. 

The Chieti Unit will analyse the concept of ‘Human-centredness’ with particular attention to gender issues and intercultural relations. The focus on the theme of vulnerability - the specific object of the Unit's work - will be conducive to a better understanding of how the current concept of ‘Human’ may still include prejudicial elements with regard to gender, race, and non-human animals and artifacts. This move away from an inclusive strategy will be explored in depth through meetings with the working group of the Migration Studies laboratory (of which the PI of the Chieti Unit is also the coordinator), with the L&gend (Literature & Gender Identity) research group, and with the Anthropocene Media Lab founded by David Levente Palatinus at the University of Ruzomberok (Slovakia).

The University of Chieti will organise working-meetings with small and medium-sized enterprises working in the field of the digitisation and development of technological know-how in the Abruzzo Region. The aim is to understand the issues related to the implementation of human-centred policies applied not only to end users but also to workers in this sector.

The University of Basilicata will focus on the concept of autonomy in order to identify the possible positive and/or negative impacts of its transformations on the individual-community relationship in democratic societies. This activity will be carried out in cooperation with the Jacques Maritain Institute, which is committed to the promotion and study of humans and their life in society. A series of Jacques Maritain Lectures will host a number of speakers of the Italian and European political, economic and cultural scene, and will be devoted to the rethinking of individual and moral human autonomy.

The University of Basilicata will work on the relationship between human autonomy and machinic autonomy, focusing in particular on its implications in ethically and socially relevant areas, such as health and safety. This activity will be carried out in cooperation with the School of Engineering and the MA Course in Medicine and Surgery of the University of Basilicata. It will organise a series of interdisciplinary workshops which will also be open to the participation of socio-medical practitioners and representatives of automotive companies working in the field of automation (such as the FCA Melfi plant, one of the most innovative automotive factories in Europe).