Published: 2023-02-23

Hong Kong Baptist University is set to host the city’s first “Summit of Artificial Humans”. It will combine humanistic and social scientific perspectives to help understand artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on society.

Organised by HKBU’s School of Communication, the summit will bring together world-renowned scholars in artificial intelligence and top researchers in the natural and social sciences to explore evolving challenges and concerns related to AI developments in the next decade.

Media and scholarly attention has tended to concentrate on scientific and informatics developments, sometimes neglecting human-centric and socio-cultural dimensions within which these AI technologies play out.

The event, scheduled for 6 March 2023, will feature keynote speakers from Canada and six Hong Kong university campuses. They will specifically address how social scientists can make significant contributions to the rise of artificial humans including AI-based technological developments, social robots, and augmented humans.

“Artificial humans can be chatbots like ChatGPT, or voice assistants like Siri, that have some humanistic functions in their agency”, says Professor Bu Zhong, the Head of the Department of Interactive Media, and the host of the Summit. “This means that there are some social perspectives to these AI technologies that are worth exploring”.

Keynote Speakers:
(in alphabetical order)

-Professor Jiannong CAO, Department of Computing and Dean of Graduate School, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

-Professor Matthieu GUITTON, Editor-in-Chief of Computers in Human Behavior (CHB) and CHB: Artificial Humans; Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of International Studies of Laval University, Canada

-Professor GUO Yike, Provost, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

-Professor S. Joe QIN, Acting Dean of School of Data Science, City University of Hong Kong; President Designate of Lingnan University, Hong Kong

-Professor Yang WANG, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Video)

-Professor Martin D.F. WONG, Dean of Faculty of Engineering, Chinese University of Hong Kong

-Professor Dong XU, Department of Computer Science, University of Hong Kong

-Professor Bu ZHONG, Senior Editor of Computers in Human Behavior; Head of Department of Interactive Media, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University

One highlight of the Summit will be the launch of a new Elsevier journal, Computers in Human Behaviour-Artificial Humans (CHB-AH). “We would like to incorporate perspectives, not just from information sciences or computer sciences, but also from humanistic, philosophical, and ethical approaches,” says Zhong, who will serve as its Senior Editor.

“The Summit of artificial humans and journal announcement has been widely supported by the leading AI experts. This promises to be an exciting event with an opportunity for continuous dialogue,” he adds.

Event Details:

Date: 6 March 2023 (Monday)

Time: 14:30 to 16:30

Venue: WLB 109, Lam Woo International Conference Centre, Shaw Campus, HKBU

NO registration is needed.