Upcoming USU Event to Explore Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence

LOGAN — Utah State University will host an academic symposium on the intersection of artificial intelligence and ethics.

Featuring top scholars from the humanities and sciences, the upcoming “AI Revolutions: From Machines to Morals” event will facilitate critical discussions about the challenges and societal impacts of using artificial intelligence in areas like health care, the military, and everyday life.

Organized by faculty in the College of the Humanities and Social Sciences, specifically the Department of Communication Studies and Philosophy and the Center for Anticipatory Intelligence, the symposium is set to include presentations, panels and round tables with leaders in the fields of philosophy, technology and ethics.

The event on Sept. 19 and 20 is expected to attract a diverse audience due to a growing interest in artificial intelligence — an interest increasingly reflected in the news and at universities like USU trying to contend with AI in an educational setting.

Conference organizers plan to tackle some of the most pressing questions surrounding the societal impact of large language models and advanced machine learning systems and whether ethical guidelines should govern their development and use.

“In the age of AI, we stand at the crossroads and face the choice of how to use this new technology,” said USU Assistant Professor of Philosophy and event co-organizer Brittany Gentry. “If we take the time to struggle with the hard questions and consider both good and bad uses of this technology, perhaps future generations will look back on us as a model of what to do instead of what not to do.”

Keynote presenters will include John Symons, director of the Center for Cyber Social Dynamics at the University of Kansas, and S. Matthew Liao, the Arthur Zitrin Chair of Bioethics at New York University. Liao and Symons will present alongside several other leading ethicists, philosophers and computer scientists from across the United States and abroad.

Gentry’s co-organizer and fellow philosopher Michael Otteson said these new technologies intersect with the fundamental questions about the nature of knowledge and ethics that philosophers have pursued for thousands of years.

“ ‘AI Revolutions: From Machines to Morals’ aims to dig into these topics,” Otteson said. The event “will bring together some of the top scholars in philosophy who deal with artificial intelligence and cover practical questions surrounding their use with foundational questions related to trust, fairness and ethics.”

The symposium represents an opportunity for the USU community and the general public to engage with the ethical dimensions of cutting-edge AI technologies and address critical issues, with sessions covering both practical and theoretical considerations.

This two-day in-person symposium will be hosted in the Eccles Conference Center on USU’s Logan campus. Thanks to funding from CSPH, CAI and the Tanner Talk Series, the event is free for attendees and open to the public.

For more information, please visit: https://chass.usu.edu/philosophy/ai-and-ethics-conference/