CfA avataResponsibility 2025: Artificial agency and responsibility: the rise of LLM-powered avatars 

 

Venue: Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, 22 & 23 May 2025

Description: Recent developments in digital and robotic avatars that integrate Large Language Models with interactive representations of real human beings are pushing the boundaries of artificial agency. Highly autonomous or semi-teleoperated, avatars deployed in virtual and physical social environments (e.g. professional, educational or healthcare) rely on greater artificial agency. This raises pressing questions related to legal and moral responsibility for outcomes generated with and by avatars. The purpose of this two-day workshop is to explore the puzzle of artificial agency and responsibility in the context of LLM-powered avatars, considering alternative models developed in the wake of AI agency, new work in social ontology, as well as artificial legal agency. 

 

Keynote and guest speakers include:

 

Pekka Mäkelä, University of Helsinki

Raul Hakli, University of Helsinki  

Daniela Vacek, Slovak Academy of Sciences

Iza Skoczen, Jagiellonian University

Diana Mocanu, University of Helsinki

Matteo Pascucci, Slovak Academy of Sciences

 

Submissions: We have two open slots for workshop talks and four open slots for workshop posters. We welcome submissions of abstracts (maximum 500 words, excluding references) on topics relating to avatars (both digital and robotic) and responsibility. Please send your anonymised abstract and short bio by 25 March 2025 to avataresponsibility@ccea.ro. Successful candidates will be notified by the beginning of April. Although full costs cannot be covered, there might be several (partial) travel reimbursements available for PhD students and post-doctoral researchers without current funding.

 

Organizers: 

This is the second of a series of five yearly workshops hosted by the Research Center in Applied Ethics of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, within the framework of the ERC Starting Grant project “avataResponsibility” (Avatar agency. Moral responsibility at the intersection of individual, collective, and artificial social entities in emergent avatar communities). Details of the previous edition are available here. The workshop is part of the larger series of events “Responsibility Matters Workshop Series” (RMWS) covering topics related to responsibility across various fields. For further details please contact Mihaela Constantinescu, PI of the ERC grant avataResponsibility: mihaela.constantinescu@filosofie.unibuc.ro.