AI and Values seminar Series (November/Online)
Joscha Bach (Director of California Institute on Machine Consciousness) 21/11/2025
18:30-19:30 (CET); 09:00-10:30 (PDT)
Online: Zoom link
Abstract:
When designing behavioral guidelines and policies for non-human agents, we are confronted with the difficulty of justifying our values in a way that is not simply grounded in the moral background of our societies, cultures and milieus. Instead, we may have to formalize our moral preferences, and be prepared to justify them and the way in which they are negotiated in a way that holds up in the perspective of rational agents that are potentially more persuasive and rigorous than us. Can the challenge posed by artificial intelligent agency contribute to our understanding of our own morality, our moral potential, and space of ethical systems?
Short bio:
Joscha Bach is a cognitive scientist who uses the lens of artificial intelligence to understand the nature of the human mind. He received a PhD in Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück, and worked at Humboldt University of Berlin, the MIT Media Lab, the Harvard Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, and Intel Labs. He is currently leading the California Institute for Machine Consciousness and advises the startup LiquidAI.