dvances in artificial intelligence, partly due to the availability of massive amounts of data, have recently stirred both public and academic debates about the opportunities, but also the risks posed by these developments. While debates around strong AI often appear to oscillate between utopian dreams and dystopian nightmares, developments in the context of so-called weak AI raise more mundane, yet more pressing ethical and philosophical questions. Automated decision-making, crime prediction, facial recognition, or deep fakes: technological advances and the increasing reliance on often opaque software systems raise thorny questions. The recent controversies around Covid-19 tracing or so-called immunity apps may serve as a telling example: from issues around surveillance and privacy over justice and discrimination to freedom and (relational) autonomy – the development and deployment of information and communication technologies poses numerous ethical, social, and political questions to be addressed from different philosophical perspectives.
The International Society of Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT.net) and the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP.org) are delighted to announce that submissions are now being accepted for their joint CEPE/IACAP conference on July 5-9, 2021, hosted by the Department of Informatics, Universität Hamburg, Germany. The meeting is organized by the Research Group for Ethics in Information Technology (http://uhh.de/inf-eit), chaired by Prof. Dr. Judith Simon (http://uhh.de/inf-simon). The philosophy and ethics of artificial intelligence will serve as a guiding theme for the CEPE/IACAP Joint Conference 2021. While submissions to this broad topic are encouraged, other topics within the field of philosophy of computing and computer ethics are also very welcome.
