Who's Afraid of AI? Arts, Sciences, and the Futures of Intelligence Day 1
When and Where
Description
2025 marks an inflection poing in our technological landscapre, driven by seismic shifts in AI innovation.
Who's Afraid of AI? Arts, Science, and the Futures of Intelligence is a week-long inquiry into the implications and future directions of AI for our creative and collective imaginings, and the many possible futures of intelligence. The complexity of these immediate future calls for interdisciplinary dialogue, bringing together artists, AI researchers, and humanities scholars.
In this volatile domain, the question of who envisions our futures is vital. Artists explore with complexity and humanity, while the humanities reveal the histories of intelligence and the often-overlooked ways knowledge and decision-making have been shaped. By placing these voices in dialogue with AI researchers and technologists, Who’s Afraid of AI? examines the social dimensions of technology, questions tech solutionism from a social-impact perspective, and challenges profit-driven AI with innovation guided by public values.
The two-day conference at the University of Toronto’s University College anchors the week and features panels and debates with leading figures in these disciplines, including a keynote by 2025 Nobel Laureate in Physics Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of AI” and 2025 Neil Graham Lecturer in Science, Fei-Fei Li, an AI pioneer.
Throughout the week, the conversation continued across the city with:
- AI-themed and AI powered art shows and exhibitions
- Film screenings
- Innovative theatre
- Experimental music
Who’s Afraid of AI? demonstrates that Toronto has not only shaped the history of AI but continued to prepare its future. Step into this changing landscape and be part of this transformative dialogue — register today!
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Mind the World
9 AM | Clark Reading Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle
What are the merits and limits of artificial intelligence within the larger debate on embodiment? This session brings together an artist who has given AI a physical dimension, a neuroscientist who reckons with the biological neural networks inspiring AI, and a humanist knowledgeable of the longer history in which the human has tried to decouple itself from its bodily needs and wants.
Suzanne Kite
Director, The Wihanble S’a Center for Indigenous AI
James DiCarlo
Director, MIT Quest for Intelligence
N. Katherine Hayles
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Literature
Staging AI
11 AM | Clark Reading Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle
How is AI changing the performing arts? To answer this question, we bring together theatre directors who have made AI the main driving plot of their stories and those who opted to keep technology secondary in their productions as well as musicians who have worked between human and artificial voice.
Kay Voges
Artistic Director, Schauspiel Köln
Roland Schimmelpfennig
Playwright and Director, Berlin
Robert Lepage
Playwright, Director, Actor
Recognizing ‘Noise’
2 PM | Clark Reading Room, University College – 15 King’s College Circle
How can we design a more inclusive AI? This session brings together an artist who has worked with AI and has been sensitive to groups who may be excluded by its practice, an inclusive design scholar who has grappled with AI’s potential for personalized accessibility, and a humanist who understands the longer history on pattern and recognition from which emerged AI.
Marco Donnarumma
Artist, Inventor, Theorist, Berlin
Jutta Treviranus
Director, OCADU,
Inclusive Design Research Centre
Eryk Salvaggio
Media Artist and Tech Policy Press Fellow, Rochester
Keynote and Neil Graham Lecture in Science
4 PM | Hart House Theatre – 7 Hart House Circle
Stay tuned for topic of discussion!
Fei-Fei Li
Sequoia Professor in Computer Science, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI
Geoffrey Hinton
2024 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Professor Emeritus in Computer Science
Daniel Wigdor
Introduced by AXL CEO and Professor of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Hosted by: University of Toronto, University College & BMO Lab
Co-Sponsored: TUX (tux-hci.org), SSHRC, Jackman Humanities Institute, CIFAR, Hart House, Department of Psychology, Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine, Centre for Comparative Literature, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Information, Hart House Theatre, Department of Computer Science, ICCIT, Department of English, Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures, Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology.