[Call for Workshops] 1st Hybrid Human-AI Conference - deadline January 31

[Roel Dobbe]

Dear friends and colleagues,

We are excited to share with you the Call for Workshops for the First Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence (HHAI) Conference.

We welcome workshop proposals on a broad range of topics related to HHAI with the aim to open up conversations that cross disciplinary boundaries and bring together diverse stakeholders and perspectives.

As a first edition, the workshops will be crucial in building a diverse and open community, which will provide input to how we shape the conference moving forward.

We therefore welcome both traditional workshop formats as well as creative and reflective events that push the boundaries of existing fields and epistemologies.

Join us in shaping the HHAI community and send in your proposals by January 31 – see further guidelines, timeline and information below or via EasyChair.

We also appreciate if you forward this call to colleagues you deem interested to contribute to this program. Please also invite non-academic enthusiasts that are engaging with HHAI topics.

Thank you and please feel welcome to ask us any questions.

On behalf of the HHAI team,
Kindly,

Ana Valdivia and Roel Dobbe (Workshop Chairs)

Please send inquiries to <r.i.j...@tudelft.nl>

 _________________________

Call for Workshops

Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence (HHAI) is the first international conference focusing on the study of Artificial Intelligent systems that integrate synergistically, purposefully and responsibly with human activity, amplifying instead of replacing human intelligence and interaction. The first International Conference on Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence (#HHAI2022, http://www.hhai-conference.org) will be held in Amsterdam on June 13-17, 2022. 

 
HHAI-2022 workshops will provide a platform for discussing Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence in more informal settings and for a broad audience. We invite proposals for full-day and half-day events during the two days leading up to the main conference. Registration for the main conference is expected, arrangements for non-traditional conference attendees can be requested.

 

The goal of workshops is to bring together academics, professionals and users of technology to better understand the socio-technical benefits, risks and limitations that artificial intelligence has when interacting with humans from different perspectives. Thus we encourage workshops presenting broad concepts of human-artificial intelligence interaction or specific cases. We invite submissions for events that foster cross-disciplinary interaction, scientific discourse, and creative and critical reflection, rather than just being mini-conferences. To do so, we offer organizers flexibility for format that best suit the goals of their event. We especially welcome submissions of communities that are usually not featured prominently in artificial intelligence events and conferences. 
                

Important Dates 

• January 31, 2022:  Workshop proposals due via EasyChair (https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=hhai2022wt#).
• February 7, 2022: Workshop proposal acceptance notification 
• February 14, 2022: Deadline for announcing the Workshops Call for Papers/Contributions
• April 1, 2022: Workshop application deadline for contributions to the workshop
• April 29, 2022: Recommended deadline for paper acceptance notification
• June 13,14 2022: HHAI2022 Workshops 
• August 31, 2022 (optional): Deadline workshop report

Submission guidelines

Proposals should consist of 4 pages (+ references) and must include the following information:

• Title and abstract of the workshop.
• Name, affiliations, short bio and email address of each member of the team. The names and full contact information (email, postal addresses, and telephone numbers) of the organizing committee – a minimum of three people knowledgeable in the field-and short descriptions of their relevant expertise and how it complements each other. (Please specify a main contact.) Strong proposals include organizers who bring differing perspectives to the workshop topic and who are actively connected to the communities of potential participants.

• A description of the workshop topic. Identify the specific topics and issues on which the workshop will focus.
• A brief discussion of why the topic is of particular interest at this time, including a discussion of prior workshops in this area (if applicable).
• A brief description of the proposed workshop format, regarding the mix of events such as paper presentations, invited talks, panels, and general discussion.
• A brief description of the (intended) presenters/contributors to the event.
• An indication as to whether the workshop should be considered for a half-day or full-day event.
• The targeted audience size.
• Additional artifacts (optional): If you have additional materials which would support your proposal, such as a video example of the facilitation, a website, or written workbooks, you can also include that in your proposal.
• Documentation and reporting plans (optional): We would like to give the opportunity for sessions to be properly documented. Indicate how you plan to capture and/or catalyze ideas that arise in your session (e.g., mention format and technical infrastructure for documentation during the event). We plan to compile artifacts for sessions that choose this (max 1000 words), and publish them on a microsite, linked to the HHAI website <http://www.hhai-conference.org>. Deadlines for reports to be included are August 31, 2022?.
• Publicity plans: If you plan to use social media to promote or document your session, please indicate a hashtag here.
• References or citations (if applicable).
• Other needs: Include a note if you have any special requirements for your session that are not addressed elsewhere.
  
  

Evaluation criteria

1. Relevance: Connection to and relevance for the objectives of the HHAI conference and the objectives listed in this particular call.
2. Rigor and quality: The potential of the proposal to generate stimulating discussions and useful results about scientific and socio-technical problems regarding the interaction of artificial intelligence and human activity.
3. Organization: Is the plan clear, sensible and thorough?
4. Diversity and Inclusion: Thoughtfulness in the approach detailed to ensure engagement and participation of a broad audience. Diversity in backgrounds of the workshop organisers and intended presenters/contributors.
   
   

Workshops - Topics of Interest 

 We welcome two types of contributions: traditional and creative workshops. Traditional workshops typically match the topics and different challenges of the general call for contributions for the Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence Conference. Creative workshops invite non-conventional contributions with different formats (e.g. unconference, interactive workshops or art exhibitions) with topics related to the conference.

Traditional Workshops

For traditional workshops, organizers may consider a call for papers and a set of invited talks around a certain theme (with or without papers). The topics may be inspired by those listed for the broader conference, including adaptive human AI, co-learning and co-creation, fair, ethical, responsible and trustworthy AI, socio-technical system perspectives, law and policy (see a more exhaustive list here). We welcome workshops related to all types of technology and application domains.

Creative and Reflective Events

Recently, calls for human-centered AI have intensified, evidenced by the need for ‘appropriate human control’ in the European Commission’s proposal for AI regulation and many new research programs exploring the intersection of AI technology and human activity. While AI offers many new opportunities, it also brings new risks for human flourishing. A number of prominent studies acknowledge that properly understanding the risks and opportunities of AI systems and human-AI interactions require more holistic approaches. 

In the spirit of reflection and community-building, we invite academics of all disciplines and people representing different communities of practice (including journalism, advocacy, activism, organizing, education, art, law and policy) to contribute with creative and reflective programming. This part of the conference considers contributions to:

1.    Creatively engage with and address critiques of the field of human-centered AI -- its gaps, omissions, and possibilities by taking a more holistic approach;

2.    Highlight novel modes of interaction with questions of human-centered AI;

3.    Invite an interdisciplinary and cross-practice group of organizers, researchers, activists, and artists to explore and inspire conversation and open future lines of research, collaboration, and practice;

4.    Push beyond the epistemological and methodological boundaries of their practice.

The format is flexible and can be chosen to best address the above goals. Alternative formats include but are not limited to: 

·         Lightning Talks, 

·         Debates or Rump Sessions, 

·         Poster and/or Demo Session, 

·         Unconference, 

·         Interactive Workshop,

·         Art Exhibit or Other Artistic Intervention.

 

We understand that  for some communities, conference attendance may be more challenging to finance and make time for. We therefore encourage you to consider forms of support for contributors. The conference organization is open to consider how we can make attendance easier for groups with limited resources.

Building a safe and inclusive culture together

The first edition of the HHAI workshops and broader conference offers an opportunity to build culture together, which we aim to do in a mindful manner. The conference spins out of the Hybrid Intelligence Centre, which has embraced diversity and inclusion as a central principle in how we recruit and how we interact with each other.

 

We will build a safe and inclusive culture together with the workshop organizers. This will be reflected in our assessment of the proposals. Here we welcome your suggestions for ensuring a welcoming program for people from different backgrounds, both professionally and individually. In the assessments of the proposals, we will have experts providing suggestions for strengthening the plans. After selection, we will propose a set of guidelines and shape these with all workshop organizers, so that we learn and exchange best practices and work towards a shared mindset for making the workshops a success.

 

On a more formal note, we also know that many members of our community may have been subject to discrimination and harassment in our work as researchers/professionals, including at conferences. The HHAI organising committee is committed to making HHAI2022 as safe, diverse and tolerant as possible and building a lasting culture of inclusivity. This means we will do what is in our abilities to protect people who may be subject to discrimination or harassment, and we maintain open to any questions or suggestions abour our ways of communicating and organizing.

Chairs:

• Roel Dobbe, Delft University of Technology (Workshop Co-chair)
• Ana Valdivia, King’s College London (Workshop Co-chair)
• Stefan Schlobach, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (General Chair)