Schlagwort: Artificial Consciousness

Empfehlungen, Tagungen

AAAI 2026 Spring Symposium Series Brings the AI Community Together in the Bay Area

The AAAI 2026 Spring Symposium Series, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, will take place from April 7 to April 9, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency, San Francisco Airport in Burlingame. This annual series offers a distinctive format in which multiple symposia run in parallel at a shared venue, creating an intimate yet vibrant environment for exchange across the AI community. Designed as a two-and-a-half-day gathering, the series gives participants substantially more time for discussion, feedback, and collaboration than typical one-day workshops, making it particularly well suited for fostering emerging research communities. Each symposium typically brings together 40 to 75 participants, with attendance structured to encourage deep engagement by having each participant focus on a single symposium. The 2026 program spans a wide range of timely and forward-looking topics, including advances in AI-enabled tactical autonomy from sensing to execution, AI in business and intelligent transformation, AI and humanitarian assistance and disaster response, challenges around the enshittification of embodied AI and robotics, machine consciousness at the intersection of theory, technology, and philosophy, machine learning and knowledge engineering for knowledge-grounded semantic agents, safety and teamwork in multi-agent systems, and the impact of AI on human creativity and well-being in the context of co-evolving human and machine intelligence. By combining focused symposia with a shared setting, the AAAI Spring Symposium Series continues to serve as a meaningful convening point for researchers and practitioners shaping the future of artificial intelligence. However, the fact that this traditional conference no longer takes place at Stanford University is a shame, as is the fact that entering the US today is a matter of conscience. Further details about the program, participation, and updates can be found at aaai.org/conference/spring-symposia/sss26/.

Fig.: In San Francisco

Diskussionen, Vorträge

Towards Machine Consciousness

The AAAI 2019 Spring Symposium „Towards Conscious AI Systems“ – held at Stanford University – featured emotional and fascinating lectures and discussions. At the time, most participants believed that it must be simulated consciousness. However, a few seemed convinced of the possibility of genuine consciousness. The AAAI 2026 Spring Symposia will once again include an event on the topic: „Machine Consciousness: Integrating Theory, Technology, and Philosophy”. It will take place at the Hyatt Regency, San Francisco Airport, Burlingame. The description on the website states: „Recent AI advances have forced us to confront the possibility of consciousness, beyond intelligence, in machines. Asking ‚Can machines be conscious?‘ forces us to answer ‚How can we define consciousness in a formal way/what is the causal structure of consciousness?‘ (theory, formal frameworks), ‚How would consciousness be implemented?‘ (technical realization), ‚How can we determine that a given system is conscious?‘ (measurement/attribution), and ‚What status would consciousness lend to machines?‘ (ethics).“ (Website AAAI Spring Symposia) With their wording, the organizers remain vague, yet they still raise expectations – however, there is no evidence whatsoever that machines could „awaken“. Nevertheless, it is likely that inspiring discussions will take place once again and that interesting conclusions will be reached. Further information on this symposium and other symposia is available at aaai.org/conference/spring-symposia/sss26/.

Fig.: Only humans and animals can have true consciousness