AI consciousness and ethics: call for papers

We’re now accepting submissions for papers and abstracts for the 2026 AISB conference.

AISB 2026 conference

This workshop will be part of the AISB 2026 conference to be held at the University of Sussex, UK, from 1-2 July 2026.

The conference is organised by The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB).

The Symposium Chair will be Steve Torrance. Contact Steve at sbtorrance@outlook.com.

AI consciousness and ethics

Are we likely to soon recognise a new constituency of non-biological ethical beings – AI agents which are either moral receivers that have ethical rights, or moral doers that have ethical duties?

We’ll consider:

how the development of AI Consciousness (AIC) fits in with such a prospect
how ethically significant agents could be implemented
how it might change our view of human existence, of living creatures, or of our technologies.

This one-day AISB 2026 workshop will invite contributions covering the many ethical issues that arise over AI Consciousness research – in particular the potential for such research to produce systems that have their own moral standing (either as agents or as patients), or that give an illusory appearance of having such status.

Machine Consciousness and Machine Ethics have both been active as AI subfields for over two decades. Recently, many have speculated that AI agents with the conversational abilities of LLMs may come to be seen as giving moral status to the systems on which they operate.

Work in AIC development closely links to work in consciousness science, and theories from that domain have been considered in relation to grounding AIC accounts. Principles have been proposed for ethically responsible research into AI-based consciousness, designed to guide researchers in avoiding vulnerability or victimisation in apparent AIC agents that may be created.

Others have examined the potential effects on human society in relation to a spread of a belief in artificial sentience in the systems we interact with on social media. Some have proposed a moratorium on AIC research while we properly assess its ethical and societal consequences.

Questions arise concerning:

the conceptual or theoretical foundations of notions such as consciousness, suffering and needs.
the ethical notions implicated in the debate
the social, legal and economic impacts and policy issues concerning such research, such as in the context of its rapid proliferation.

There are many issues in psychology, biology, neuroscience, etc. about the nature of consciousness itself. There are debates between those who see biological constitution as essential to consciousness, and those who favour functional accounts of consciousness that are open to digital implementation. These positions may affect how seriously we should take the idea of attributing moral claims or duties to AI agents.

Programme committee

The programme committee for the workshop is:

Prof Steve Torrance (Sussex) – Symposium Chair
Prof Antonio Chella (Palermo)
Dr Rob Clowes (Lisbon, Bochum)
Prof Mark Coeckelbergh (Vienna)
Dr John Dorsch (Prague)
Dr Alexei Grinbaum (CEA, Paris)
Prof Anil Seth (Sussex)
Dr Blay Whitby (Sussex).

Submission details and key dates

Potential contributors should submit a 1000 word extended abstract by 28 February 2026. Please also provide a 300 word abstract – this will be used in the conference guide to be given to attendees, so that they can choose which parallel sessions to attend.

Submissions in the form of draft papers (maximum eight pages, including notes and references) are also welcomed, but please supply a 1000 word extended abstract, and a 300 word abstract.

Authors of accepted submissions will be informed of the decision to be invited to participate as a speaker, or as a poster-presenter, by 21 March 2026.

Full papers to AISB workshops are normally published as part of the AISB 2026 Proceedings. Completed camera-ready copy (using the AISB format) should be sent by 28 April 2026. Papers not sent by that date may not be included in the Proceedings. Papers published in the Proceedings will not have a DOI.

Authors of accepted papers (one author per co-authored paper) will be expected to give an in-person presentation at the workshop. Remote presentations will not be accepted if no presenter is present at the workshop. Presentations (including set-up and Q&A) will normally last for 30 minutes, to allow for conference participants to move between different symposia. Exceptionally, presentation-time may be extended to one hour.

The planned length of the symposium is currently one full day. However an extra half-day may be added if there is a large number of exceptional-quality submissions.

Submissions should be sent to Steve Torrance at sbtorrance@outlook.com

A submission management platform (e.g. via Easychair) may be announced soon.

Use of generative AI tools

In view of the potential problems of original authorship presented by AI paper generation tools, authors of submissions may be asked to include a brief career summary and a declaration of how, if at all, AI resources have been employed in the production of the material submitted.

Topics of interest

These are non-exhaustive lists. Submissions should specify the topic(s) being addressed.

Foundations

Indicative foundational topics include:

ethically relevant aspects of consciousness in the AI domain
ethical status in the AI domain as an ‘objective’ or rationally grounded matter
‘consciousness’ as an inherently ethical category in relation to AI.

Impacts and policy

Indicative topics about the discussion of impacts and policy include:

the imminence of the emergence of the Artificial Consciousness (AC) suffering crisis
massive and rapid proliferation – the ‘ethics of scale’ in relation to AI and consciousness
the ethical, social and legal responsibilities of AI consciousness researchers.

Implementation: biocentrism vs substrate independence

Indicative topics about biocentrism vs substrate independence include:

biological naturalism vs computational functionalism in the context of AIC ethics
AI super-intelligence and (ethically relevant) consciousness – the ‘AC drop-out’ thesis
AC, ethics and embodied/humanoid robotics.

Contact

If you have any queries, email sbtorrance@outlook.com.