Date: January 29, 2026 (Thursday) Time: 5-6pm Venue: Rm 10.13, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU Speaker: Professor Alice Huang, Western University Abstract: There is a literature across science and technology studies, sociology of science, and philosophy examining the phenomenon of hype in science and technology. While definitions of hypes vary, most accounts share a critical stance, […]
The Efficiency of Hyping Read More »
Date: Novermber 17, 2025 (Mon) Time: 15:00-17:00 Venue: Room 4.36, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU Speaker: Professor James Joyce , C. H. Langford Collegiate Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan Commentors: Professor Jiji Zhang (The Chinese University of HK) Professor Boris Babic (Hong Kong University) Professor Simon Goldstein (Hong Kong University) Professor Kangyu
Prof James Joyce’s Paper Workshop – Causal Decision Theory for Unratifiable Actions Read More »
Date: Novermber 14, 2025 (Friday) Time: 15:30-17:00 Venue: MB142, 1/F, Main Building, HKU Speaker: Professor James Joyce , C. H. Langford Collegiate Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan Abstract: After introducing the notion of credal accuracy, and explaining why formal epistemologists use strictly proper scoring rules to measure it, I will introduce some well-known accuracy
Can Learning Truths Make your Beliefs Less Accurate? Read More »
Date: December 5, 2025 (Friday) Time: 15:30-17:00 Venue: Rm 10.13, 10/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU Speaker: Prof Ryan M. Nefdt, University of Cape Town Abstract: There is a veritable cornucopia of options for scholars interested in using the tools of philosophy and cognitive science to interpret the behaviour of large language models
Linguistic Relativity, LLMs, and the Hog Thesis Read More »
Date: November 28, 2025 (Friday) Time: 13:30-15:00 Venue: Rm 10.13, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU Speaker: Dr Erica Mealy, University of the Sunshine Coast Abstract: Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded within sociotechnical systems—complex networks where human practices, institutional structures, and technological components interact. In these environments, ensuring the reliability of AI is not
Date: October 28, 2025 (Tue) Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm Venue: P603 IDS Office, Graduate House, HKU Speaker: Prof Frederick Eberhardt, Professor of Philosophy, California Institute of Technology Moderator: Prof Boris Babic, Dept of Philosophy & Law (by courtesy), HKU Abstract: Causal representations are models of real-world data that retain causal information, so in particular, they provide
Learning Causal Representations Read More »
Date: October 9, 2025 (Thursday) Time: 18:15 – 19:30 Venue: Room 4.36, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU Speakers: Professor Boris Babic, Department of Philosophy, HKUProfessor Simon Goldstein , Department of Philosophy, HKUProfessor Maximilian Kiener, Institute for Ethics in Technology, Hamburg University of Technology Professor Brian Wong, Department of Philosophy, HKU Abstract: The top AI labs are
Who’s Afraid of AGI? Read More »
Abstracts Title: LLM – The Split-Brainer That Talks Back Zheng Zhang (Director at Amazon Web Services Shanghai AI Lab, Senior Principal Scientist) Abstract: This talk presents a demystifying journey into Large Language Models (LLMs) through both technical exposition and philosophical inquiry. The first half provides an accessible crash course on LLM fundamentals: how next-token prediction
Date: October 10, 2025 (Friday) Time: 15:30 – 17:00 Venue: Room 10.13, 10/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU Speaker: Professor Maximilian Kiener Institute for Ethics in Technology, Hamburg University of Technology Abstract: The scholarly literature presents various approaches to integrating ethical considerations into the development of AI, most prominently the approaches ‘ethics by
Date: September 19, 2025 (Friday) Time: 14:00 – 17:00 Venue: Room 4.36, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU Speaker: Geoff Keeling, Staff Research Scientist, Google Winnie Street, Senior Researcher, Google Abstract: A symposium on the forthcoming book “AI Welfare” by Geoff Keeling and Winnie Street. This is an examination of whether—and which—AI systems