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Unite! Summer School: The AI's have it?

Joint offer of two UNITE! partners

2021/04/13

The Chair of History of Technology at TU Darmstadt together with the Centro de Filosofia das Ciências at Universidade de Lisboa host the Unite! Summer School “The AI's have it?”. Focus of the summer school will be on reflections on the history, present and future of AI-human relations. Applying for the Unite! Summer School is possible from now until May 15, 2021.

The person depicted does not exist in reality. The face was artificially created by so-called Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN).
The person depicted does not exist in reality. The face was artificially created by so-called Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN).

Algorithms “read” pictures, compose music, according to a given prompt, co-create works of art, write poems, and predict audience reactions to movies. Clearly, the division of labor between humans and machines and the forms of human-machine interaction are undergoing rapid change. With new developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning, visions and dreams of the future seem to be coming true. For the human self-concept, this development is often disconcerting. Once again, the question arises: what constitutes being human? A few decades ago, it was debates about thinking and intelligence. Today, concepts such as autonomy, creativity, responsibility or emotions are questioned, changed and defended in the context of current AI developments: can all of this be done by machines?

During the one-week virtual Unite! Summer School “The AI's have it?”, master and PhD students from all over Europe will have the opportunity to discuss these exciting topics together and reflect on the history, present and future of AI-human relationships. The Summer School is jointly coordinated by Professor Dr. Martina Heßler from the Institute of History at TU Darmstadt and Dr. Alexander Gerner from the Centro de Filosofia das Ciências at the University of Lisbon.

Unite! Summer School in a Nutshell

Time and Place

The summer school will be held online from September 20-24, 2021.

Who Can Participate?

The summer school is open to students of all Unite! university partners. Master students and PhD students of engineering science, computer science, history, STS, philosophy, and the arts are invited to participate.

How to Participate?

Contributions to the summer school can be, e.g., the discussion of theoretical approaches, programming examples, empirical investigations of new practices or reflections on literature, music, games, theatre, cinema, and art. Participants should give a presentation, e.g., a lecture, a poster, an intervention, a performance, or a science slam. Should you like to participate without giving a presentation, reading texts and active participation are expected. The standard number of ECTS points for the summer school is 5 – if required, other amounts can be arranged.

How to Apply?

Please send a short letter of motivation, a proposal for your presentation (1-2 pages), and a short CV to by May 15, 2021.