CFP: Special Issue of AI&Society: Killer robots or friendly fridges: the social understanding of Artificial Intelligence
Rudi
Special Issue of AI&Society: Killer robots or friendly fridges: the
social understanding of Artificial Intelligence
http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth/krff-special-issue.html
OVERVIEW
This CFP arises from the Symposium Killer robots or friendly fridges:
the social understanding of Artificial Intelligence held at Heriot-
Watt University as part of the AISB Symposia in April 2009.
For the non-specialist, the whole notion of Artificial Intelligence
challenges fundamental understandings of what it is to be human, with
enormous implications for how we conceive ourselves, our artefacts and
our societies. AI's foundational goal was the construction of
autonomous sentience. Yet, 55 years after Turing's seminal paper,
publicly visible achievements, beyond science fiction speculations or
media exaggerations, still lie in faltering steps in voice and image
recognition, surveillance, computer games and virtual environments,
not in truly intelligent everyday machines.
We seek papers that discuss the social understanding of Artificial
Intelligence, in particular the curious spaces between popular
expectations of machines that meet our every whim, fears of humans
enslaved or eliminated by crazed super-brains, and the sober reality
of toasters that still burn the bread.
At the start of the 21st century, it is timely to reflect not just on
the technical achievements and pitfalls of the now mature discipline
of Artificial Intelligence, but also on its wider social
understanding. While there have always been ill informed concerns
about "robots taking over the world", the reality is both more prosaic
and more complex. People have long anthropomorphised complex artefacts
which are capable of seemingly autonomous interaction. However, recent
advances in the deployment of believable characters and affective
systems, both in graphical and robotic form, have rekindled
problematic social and ethical questions about our relationships with
machines.
We would encourage work taking an interdisciplinary perspective on the
social understanding of Artificial Intelligence, with the strong
potential to bring together contemporary research from Technology,
Social Sciences, Philosophy, Psychology, Art and the Humanities.
RELEVANT TOPICS INCLUDE:
AI, Ethics and privacy
AI and Public Policy
Portrayal of AI in film, novel and other art forms
Anthropomorphism and AI
Attitudes towards robots and graphical characters
Believability, naturalism and the uncanny valley
Definitions of human-ness and AI artefacts
AI and gender
Social impact of AI
Social expectations of AI
Social perceptions of AI
Social/legal/economic status of AIs
Social/ethical implications of AI augmentation of humans
Human/AI construct co-working
If AIs could talk, would we understand them?
What is it like to be an AI?
SUBMISSIONS
We are seeking submissions of original papers that fit well with the
topics above. These should not have been submitted elsewhere and will
be subject to the normal journal review process. They should be not
longer than 16 pages long.
Papers presented at the AISB Symposium may be submitted in extended
versions as may relevant papers from its sibling events, the Symposium
on New frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction and Computing and
Philosophy.
The format and style templates can be found at:
http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth/krff-special-issue.html
or via the Springer AI&Society webpage. Papers should be submitted via
the EasyChair site at:
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aisuoai09
IMPORTANT DATES
Sept 11th 2009 - submission of abstract
Sept 15th 2009 - submission of paper
October 30th 2009 - notification to authors
Dec 15th 2009 - Camera ready copies
CONTACT DETAILS
Prof Greg Michaelson/Prof Ruth Aylett
Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, EH14 4AS
G.Mich...@hw.ac.uk/ru...@macs.hw.ac.uk
0131 451 3422/4189 (phone)
0131 451 3732 (FAX)
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