ETHU is pleased to welcome the first in-person meeting of the international collective 'Philosophy, Critique, and 'AI' (PCAI)', a group of scholars at any stage in their PhD/post-doc working on critical philosophical approaches to so-called ‘AI’. During this event, members of the PCAI will present their research.
The event is open to all, but registration is required. Please send an email to: judith.van.lookeren.campagne[at]vub.be
'Philosophy, Critique, and ‘AI’ (PCAI)' Presents
May 23, 2025
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pleinlaan 2, 1050 (Etterbeek) Brussel
Building D, room D.2.01 (Promotiezaal)
Further instructions for direction can be found here
Friday, May 23, 2025
10:45 Welcome
11:00 Introduction (Judith Campagne and Marilou Niedda)
Session 1 Chair: Judith Campagne
11:15 – 11:45 Anthony Longo (Antwerp University): ““Un-Boxing the Algorithm: A Phenomenological Response to the "Black Box Metaphor".”
11:45 – 12:15 Eloïse Soulier (University of Hamburg), “Concepts, normativity and AI: two approaches”
12:15 – 12:30 Break
Session 2 Chair: Eloïse Soulier
12:30 – 13:00 Judith Campagne (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), “Contesting the Contesting of Automation”
13:00 – 13:30 Kim Ann Woodley (Ruhr University Bochum), “Debunking the historical stigmatisation of emotions in computational emotion recognition”
13:30 – 14:15 Lunch
Session 3 Chair: Kim Ann Woodley
14:15 – 14:45 Heather McKnight: Nano-Utopian Temporalities in The Darkness of the Lived AI - Exploring Intimacy, Identity, Language and Law [online]
14:45 – 15:15 Marilou Niedda (Utrecht University) “Epistemology of ignorance and datafication – To interrogate the necessity for secrecy in AI through marginalised groups’ experiences”
15:15 – 15:30 Break
Session 4 Chair: Marilou Niedda
15:30 – 16:00 Mykhaylo Bogachov (Maastricht University), “Understanding fair synthetic data: a normative perspective.”
16:00 – 16:30 Michiel De Proost (UGent), “AI ethics and the diversity of forms of life: A feminist perspective”
16:30 Wrap up and Farewell
Organisation: Marilou Niedda (Utrecht), Eloïse Soulier (Hamburg), Marte Henningsen (Maastricht), Kim Ann Woodley (Bochum), Judith Campagne (Brussel). With support of the Centre for Ethics and Humanism (ETHU), Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
The international collective Philosophy, Critique, and 'AI' (PCAI) consists of early career researchers working on questions regarding ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) from a predominantly philosophical perspective. The PCAI group seeks to foster space for politicised philosophical reflection on ‘AI’, while refusing to succumb to overly simplistic characterisations of either ‘salvation’ or ‘demise’. Being a collective, PCAI creates such space through various activities. The group is for early career scholars at any stage in their PhD/post-doc working on critical philosophical approaches to ‘AI’. The collective understands techno-scientific practices to be situated within social structures that are in turn embedded in logics of domination. As such, we recognise that political reflections on ‘AI’ should be approached through a plurality of different critical theoretical (e.g., sociopolitical, epistemic, normative) lenses, which pertain to minoritised (e.g., feminist, decolonial, queer) perspectives. Ultimately, the aims of the PCAI are twofold: to reflect on how and why critical theorisations are carried out, but also to question how the term ‘AI’ is (continuously) constructed, used, en enforced.
The PCAI was initiated by Marilou Niedda (Utrecht University) and ETHU-member Judith Campagne (Vrije Universiteit Brussel).