Over 440 people, including Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, gathered in Athens on June 20th 2024 for the Lyceum Project, a conference on the ethics of AI from the perspective of Aristotle's philosophy. The conference took place at the Athens Conservatory, a stone's throw away from the ancient site of Aristotle's Lyceum, and was organized by Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI, in partnership with Stanford's Human Centred AI, Greece's National Centre for Scientific Research "Demokritos", and the World Human Forum.
The conference was preceded by the unveiling of Institute Director John Tasioulas and Stanford Professor Josiah Ober’s new white paper: "Lyceum Project: AI Ethics with Aristotle”. In the white paper, the co-authors set out an Aristotelian ethical framework for addressing the key challenges and opportunities created by the rapid development of AI technologies.
Central themes of the paper included the following:
• that the ethics of AI must be rooted in a rich conception of human flourishing, one centred on the exercise of distinctive human capabilities
• that AI systems should be conceived as 'intelligent tools' that enable individual and communal flourishing, not beings with a comparable moral standing to humans
• that the key political means for ensuring that AI serves the human good is its subjection to informed and participatory democratic control, with AI tools potentially playing an important role in enabling democratic deliberation and decision-making at scale.
The event brought together Greek and international representatives from across academic disciplines, business, healthcare, policy, and government as well as members of the Greek public. Prime Minister Mitsotakis addressed the audience and expressed support for an annual global AI ethics conference to be held in Athens.
The day also saw rich discussions with leading academics and practitioners in AI ethics, including Alondra Nelson, Yuval Shany, Brendan McCord and Constantine Daskalakis as well as presentations by six emerging researchers. The day ended with a celebration at the ancient site of Aristotle’s Lyceum during which guests were invited to share their thoughts about AI ethics and to enjoy an inspiring performance of Sasha Waltz’s democratic dance ‘In C’ by members of the Athens Conservatory's graduating class.
The Director of the Institute for Ethics in AI, John Tasioulas, reflected on the event:
"It was a great privilege to host the Lyceum Project conference in the inspiring setting of Athens with its rich philosophical and democratic traditions. The voice of the humanities is urgently needed as we grapple with the profound questions with which AI confronts us, notably the question of what a meaningful human life can be in a world in which AI systems are increasingly able to simulate many of the activities that have given human life its significance. Aristotle's ethics is an important counterweight to the dominance of utilitarian, economistic, and legalistic modes of thought in contemporary AI discourse. It was really gratifying that the Lyceum Project drew such a large and appreciative group of participants, and I hope the Institute will be able to use it as a spring-board for further collaboration with our three organising partners and further engagement with Greece."
The agenda included following events:
1. Philosophers' Panel: Professor John Tasioulas and Professor Josiah Ober as they introduce their white paper on Aristotelian AI ethics, in conversation with Professor Voula Tsouna.
2. Practitioners' Panel: Major figures from the technical, entrepreneurial, and regulatory spheres of AI, including Professor Alondra Nelson and Professor Constantine Daskalakis, discuss the practical dimensions of philosophy and ethics in AI.
3. Speech by the Prime Minister of Greece
4. Early Career Researchers' Parallel Sessions: Featuring latest research of emerging scholars dedicated to advancing Aristotelian AI ethics..
5. Aristotle Lyceum Experiencing the spirit of the place Interdisciplinary Youth Dialogue ending with a performance of "In C”
