The event series "KI erklärt" aims to make the „myth“ of artificial intelligence more accessible to a broader audience. Together with leading experts, we explain fundamental concepts and functionalities of artificial intelligence and discuss ethical, economical and political questions.

The event will explore the future of labor amidst the rise of AI, robotics, and automation, and its profound impact on society. Key topics include the transformation of work ethics, the potential for a leisure-driven utopia, and the implications for democracy. Discussions will compare the augmentation approach, emphasizing posthumanism and cyborg concepts, with the humanistic approach, advocating for welfare state extensions like basic income. By reevaluating conceptions of work and humanity, the event aims to refine these perspectives and explore new alternatives. Notable voices from various fields will investigate how these technologies affect our communal and individual futures.

We cordially invite you to the lecture on "Surrogate Humanity" with authors Neda Atanasoski and Kalindi Vora on July 5th, 4pm at CST. Based on their eponymous book (Duke Press, 2019), Atanasoski's and Vora's talk examines the role of robots, artificial intelligence and other technologies as substitutes for human labour within a labour system rooted in racial capitalism and patriarchy.

In addition to the authors, two distinguished respondents will join the discussion: Markus Gabriel and Aimee van Wynsberghe.

Together, they will discuss the implications of the book's theses and explore alternative approaches to technological development that resist the racial and colonial logics sustaining social hierarchies and inequalities.

Join us for the "Wired for Hope" event with Payal Arora and Markus Gabriel on July 1st, 5pm @CST. They will discuss different culutral outlooks on AI that range from Pessimism to Optimism. After the book presentiations Markus Gabriel and Payal Arora will discuss and explore alternative approaches to technological development and design.

Since Chat GPT we are witnessing another global AI hype. In his public Mercator-lecture Swiss philosopher Walther Ch. Zimmerli, at present Mercator Visiting Professor for Artificial Intelligence in the Human Context at the Center for Science and Thought (CST), tries to unveil the hidden mechanism behind the undeniable success-stories of AI by reconstructing its history of recurring hype-cycles beginning with what he calls the„Dartmouth Conspiracy“ and Turing’s „rehabilitation of deception“. The underlying suggestive power of the idea of AI, however,must be attributed to its mythical character as is demonstrated both by contrasting the Gartner hype-cycle theory with the philosophy of myth (Blumenberg), and by semiotically explaining it in terms of analogies and metaphors as well as contrasting it with the Singularity- and the Posthumanism-Myth (Kurzweil).

In three keynotes by Takahiro Nakajima (Tokyo), Xudong Zhang (NYU) and Markus Gabriel (Bonn) this workshop will analyse the connections between (digital) technology and various forms of modernity.

Film Screening and Discussion.

Where? Bonner Kinematik (Kreuzstraße 16, Bonn Beuel)

Guests: Markus Gabriel, Shimon Dotan and Netaya Anbar (the producers of CYBER EVERYTHING), moderated by Gert Scobel.

Talk and follow-up discussion. Lucy O'Brien and Markus Gabriel discuss illusion, delusion and hallucination and their epistemological value in the digitized present.

This workshop follows up on the Mercator Lecture for AI in the Human Context by Visiting Professor Maurizio Ferraris on June 09, 2023.

The lecture is given by Professor Maurizio Ferraris and is part of event series "Mercator Lecture for AI in the Human Context".

The lecture is given by Professor Jocelyn Maclure and is part of event series "Mercator Lecture for AI in the Human Context".

Screening of the documentary film "Cyber Everything" by Shimon Dotan, future Mercator Visiting Professor for AI in the Human Context at CST, followed by a round table discussion.

The workshop is convened Prof. Dr. Gianmaria Ajani and Prof. Dr. Maurizio Ferraris.

This online workshop brings together academics working on the representations and public perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI), journalists, media executives, civil society groups, and technologists.

4:00 pm - 6:00pm Central European Time

Guest lecture by Dr Olivia Erdélyi, Mercator Visiting Professor for AI in the Human Context

A kick-off event for the ‘Desirable Digitalisation: AI for Just and Sustainable Futures’ research programme – a collaboration between the Universities of Cambridge and Bonn, funded by the Mercator Foundation – including online talks open to the general public.