Peking University, Nov. 19, 2018: On November 23, the Center for Philosophy and the Future of Humanity was inaugurated in Peking University. Professor Yang Haifeng, the dean of the Department of Philosophy, hosted the inaugural ceremony. Professor Lin Jianhua, the former president of Peking University, Professor Wang Bo, the vice president of PKU, Professor Huw Price, the academic director of Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, and many other guests attended the ceremony.
The Inaugural Ceremony
After the inaugural ceremony, the Center for Philosophy and the Future of Humanity held an academic symposium on the subject of “How to Build Trust in Profitable Artificial Intelligence”. Professor Wang Bo introduced the purposes and reasons of founding the Center for Philosophy and the Future of Humanity in his following speech. He stressed that the concerns for the future have been pushing humankind to make constant progress and to explore both science and philosophy. With the rapid development of the study in Artificial Intelligence, he believed that science and philosophy should join hands in this field, for that the moral concerns of humanity and the scientific achievements must keep pace with each other.
Professor Wang Bo during the Speech
The speech of Professor Lin Jianhua was based on the importance of the combination of humanities and natural sciences. He pointed out that science not only had brought humans convenience and happiness but also anxiety and confusion. Therefore, in his view, scientists need to seek help from humanities, which is exactly the reason why the Center for Philosophy and the Future of Humanity is set up at this very moment of history.
Professor Lin Jianhua delivered the Speech
Later, Professor Huw Price introduced the background, history, and aims of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence in his speech. He advised that relevant institutes around the world cooperate with each other to further study the nature of Artificial Intelligence in order to face the great impact from rising new techniques.
Professor Huw Price in the Speech
At the end of ceremony, professor Wang Bo announced the research directions of the Center during initial period, which includes: first, ethics study towards artificial intelligence, robot, and biotechnology; second, cross-disciplinary study on the definition of “intelligence”; third, cross-disciplinary study on the definition of “life”; fourth, digital humanities study concerning philosophy and other relevant humanities; the last, ethical norms, laws and regulations in the field of AI, robot, and biotechnology.
Written by: Wang Nini
Edited by: Huang Yadan, Xu Liangdi
