Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to see heavy investments from industry and governments around the world. While some envision AI as a way to empower individuals and improve society, it is increasingly clear that the ethical ramifications of AI systems  and their impact on human societies requires deep and urgent reflection. International organizations, governments, universities, corporations, and philanthropists have recognised this urgent need to embark on an interdisciplinary investigation to help chart a course through the new territory enabled by AI. Earlier iterations of this conference and others have seen the first fruits of these calls to action, as programs for research have been set out in many fields relevant to AI, Ethics, and Society.

AIES is convened each year by program co-chairs from Computer Science, Law and Policy, the Social Sciences, Ethics and Philosophy. Our goal is to encourage talented scholars in these and related fields to submit their best work related to morality, law, policy, psychology, the other social sciences, and AI. Papers should be tailored for a multi-disciplinary audience without sacrificing excellence. In addition to the community of scholars who have participated in these discussions from the outset, we want to explicitly welcome disciplinary experts who are newer to this topic, and see ways to break new ground in their own fields by thinking about AI.

We are interested in any paper that touches on ethical or societal issues of AI technology and crosscuts any of the above fields.  For examples of topics, please see the CFPs and programs of previous AIES conferences, as well as a list below.

In addition to those, this year, we want to highlight as a theme the interaction of humans and AI.  For example: How should AI systems talk to humans? What effects do gendered persona have on human perceptions of AI? Should AI be allowed to use methods of nudging and persuasion to influence people? What is the human perception of AI agency and what does that imply for moral agency/patiency? How can AI support human autonomy? To what extent does AI need to be able to explain its decisions in a way humans understand? How do we know that an AI system is trustworthy? How should AI systems interact with groups of humans (e.g., in the context of teams such as the police force, the military, the work place, etc.)? What are the ethical concerns related to AI as bosses in a work context? What are the cultural differences related to human-AI interactions and how to address these in design and/or governance?  Other example topics within this theme (not an exhaustive list) would include:

– the social, ethical and societal implications of AI designed to influence people and their decision-making,
– the overlay of societal constructs such as race and gender onto machines and related effects on human-AI relations, or
– the dehumanization of warfare, policing, and social services through the introduction of telepresence and automation.

Submitted papers, whether within this theme or not, must make a substantive contribution to knowledge in one or more fields. A paper should clearly establish its research contribution, its relevance, and its relation to prior research.

Other example topics for the AIES conference series include:

    Cultural, political, and other societal impacts of AI
    AI and surveillance/manipulation of people
    Impact of AI on jobs and work
    Meaningful control, safety, and security of AI
    AI and geopolitics
    AI and vulnerable groups
    When, why and how to ban, restrict, cost and tax AI
    Ethical models/frameworks around AI and data 
    AI and environmental costs and impacts
    AI and labor, AI and markets
    Value alignment and moral decision making
    Trustworthy AI systems
    Black box systems and modes of investigation and explanation, interpretable AI
    Ethically-aligned design 
    Challenges and contradictions in AI-related design, development and ethics
    AI and the public interest, AI for social good
    Infrastructures of AI
    AI and law, regulation and governance
    AI and literature, performance, counter-culture, resistance
    New/novel AI-related concepts
    Speculative future AI design and implications
    Highly advanced / human-level AI and implications
    Innovative methodologies for studying/analyzing AI
    Developments in AI concepts, definitions, schools of thought