Call for Papers: 2nd Workshop on ‘Public Interest AI’

The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) will co-host a workshop at the 47th German Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Berlin, Germany. We look forward to your submission by 12 July, 2024.  The workshop focuses on the rapidly growing number of AI projects aimed at serving the public interest or common good, addressing the challenges in transparency around their execution and impact in areas like health, mobility, and justice systems.

2nd Workshop on ‘Public Interest AI’
23 September 2024,
Co-located with the 47th German Conference on AI (KI 2024)
Julius-Maximilians Universität Würzburg, Germany
Theresa Züger & Hadi Asghari

To the event page

Aim and Scope

The number of AI projects aiming to serve the common good or a public interest is increasing rapidly. But often, the information on these projects, their initiators, funders, methods, and objectives is not transparent, hindering the goal of serving the public. Many AI applications touch upon areas that impact the public well-being, such as public health, mobility, and justice systems. In this interdisciplinary workshop, we will connect public interest theory to the debate about AI projects and foster exchange amongst existing projects that use AI to serve the public interest to explore common challenges, methods, and standards.  

This workshop builds upon the lively discussions we had in the KI2023 edition. This includes discussing the concept of public interest AI and bringing together researchers and practitioners in the field. The aim is to host a discussion on the criteria, necessary processes, and societal conditions for AI systems to serve the public interest. 

The motivation to use AI for a common good is claimed widely. Aside from the popularity of the claim, the qualities that stand for the common good or public interest of AI are rather fuzzy. From a research perspective, the lack of empirical data to analyze what kind of criteria and which actors define AI in the public interest is problematic. We hope this workshop can contribute to an exchange of recent empirical and conceptual research findings in this area and spark a discussion on public interest AI and the economic, organizational, and technological conditions underpinning its success and sustainable impact. 

This workshop addresses AI from an interdisciplinary perspective bringing the goal of serving public interest to the forefront. We encourage submissions that report on work in progress, case studies, tools, or present a synthesis of empirical insights on AI for the public interest. Topics of interest can touch upon the following list and need to also include an explicit public interest discussion: 

• AI for accessibility
• AI for digitalization of public administration
• AI for equality & equitable AI
• AI for journalism & culture 
• AI for mobility
• AI for public safety
• AI for public health and medicine
• AI for sustainability
• AI in service of studying systemic risks and harms
• Critical assessments of (‘fake’) public interest AI systems
• Data governance of public interest AI systems
• Evaluation and auditing of public interest AI systems
• Human agency and human oversight for AI 
• Issues of fairness, accountability, and transparency (in public interest AI)
• Theoretical discussion on public interest AI  

Important Dates

Deadline for Submission: 1 July 12 July 2024 AOE
Notification of Authors: 9 August 2024
Camera-ready Paper: 20 August 2024 AOE
Workshop: 23 September 2024 (time tbd.)

Submission Details

Papers between  5 to 9  ‘standard’ pages (excl. references) may be submitted. Papers need to be anonymized (double-blind review process) and written in English. Submissions are done via EasyChair (please pick the ‘Public Interest AI’ track). 

Accepted papers will be published  in the open-access CEUR Workshop Proceedings.  

Organizing Chairs

• Dr. Hadi Asghari – Humboldt Institute for Internet & Society (Germany), primary contact: hadi.asghari@hiig.de    
• Dr. Theresa Züger – Humboldt Institute for Internet & Society (Germany), secondary contact: zueger@hiig.de  

Program Committee

• Dr. Hadi Asghari – Humboldt Institute for Internet & Society (Germany) 
• Dr. Filip Biały – European New School of Digital Studies (Poland)
• Leila Feddoul – Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany)
• Prof. Dr. Michael Gille – HAW Hamburg (Germany)
• Freya Hewett – Humboldt Institute for Internet & Society (Germany)
• Stefan Hildebrand – TU Berlin (Germany)
• Dr. Valerie Krug – Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (Germany)
• Dr. René Mahieu – Open University (Netherlands)
• Dr. Salar Mohtaj – TU Berlin (Germany)
• Dr. Arman Noroozian – European Center for Algo. Transparency (Belgium)
• Johannes Schleiss – Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (Germany)
• Thorben Schomacker – HAW Hamburg (Germany)
• Dr. Kris Shrishak – Irish Council for Civil Liberties (Ireland)
• Dr. Paul Springer – MI4People (Germany)
• Prof. Dr. Marina Tropmann-Frick – HAW Hamburg (Germany)
• Dr. Theresa Züger – Humboldt Institute for Internet & Society (Germany)