AI: Beyond Humanity
Interdisciplinary Conference
7-8 May 2026
Academia Europaea Bucharest Hub
Academia Română, Calea Victoriei 125, Bucharest
Conveners: Sorin Antohi, Gheorghe Ștefan, and Andrei Păun
Partners: „Mihai Drăgănescu” Artificial Intelligence Institute of the Romanian Academy, Master Communications International, Muzeul Municipiului București
With generous support from the Romanian Academy, Banca Transilvania, ComputerLand
To mark the first anniversary of the Academia Europaea Bucharest Hub (established on 9 May 2025 on the basis of an agreement between the Academia Europaea and the Romanian Academy), the first edition of the Hub Days is organized. Two public interdisciplinary conferences are convened on 7-8 May: AI: Beyond Humanity, and The Emporion Road: From the West to the East.
On this occasion, the creation of the Hub’s Cantemir Medal and Ioan Petru Culianu Prize will be announced. The two distinctions are endorsed by the Board of the Academia Europaea.
The event is generously sponsored by the Romanian Academy and Banca Transilvania, and supported by numerous partners.
Videos of the event will be streamed, then archived on the Hub’s homepage (www.acadeurobucharest.eu) and YouTube Channel (Academia Europaea Bucharest Hub – YouTube).
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81804211983?pwd=xw1CXHbckLk44qmHb0iBbXsXpzORK0.1
Meeting ID: 818 0421 1983
Passcode: 473282
AI: Beyond Humanity, an academic, public, and professional event, builds on two successful previous conferences: The Challenge of AI, under the aegis of the Academia Europaea, with support from the Romanian Academy (World Trade Center, Bucharest, 11-12 June 2024, organized by Master Communications International and sponsored by several companies; its details, videos, and related texts are at www.mastercommunications.ro), and AI and Humanity, 8-9 May 2025 under the double aegis of the Academia Europaea and of the Romanian Academy, and in collaboration with Master Communications International (full program and videos are archived at the addresses above).
This time, the discussion starts from AI and keeps returning to it, bringing together scholars and other professionals from many disciplines. The main focus will be on the massive impact of AI on the definition, production, evaluation, canonization, dissemination, and subversion of knowledge in all fields. The opening remarks, “Towards a Posthuman Noosphere?”, will set the tone for a humanist reflection, looking at the increasing delegation to AI of everything humans used to do (and be) in what Teilhard de Chardin called noosphere. But AI is of course an instrument some humans, not all of them and not necessarily the best (-intended), have built and trained, experimented with, and spread to all forms of human activity/existence, while lay people were looking in disbelief and awe, entertaining both high expectations and growing distrust, ultimately engaging in a passionate mind game about endless possibility and apocalypse. We convene this conference to examine the entire ongoing phenomenon from as many angles as we can.
The current event, like the previous one, has two parts: A. An academic part, open to the public. B. An academic and professional part, for registered participants only. The videos are to become available online at the same addresses.
- 7 May, 13:30-18:30, Aula
13:30-14:00 Registration
- 14:00-16:00
Sorin Antohi, Moderator and Opening Talk, Towards a Posthuman Noosphere?
Gheorghe Ștefan, AI for Controlling Our World Beyond Humanly Accessible Complexity
Emil-Ioan Slușanschi, AI vs. Education & Research
Mircea Dumitru, What Is It Like to Be an X? Or, Could AI Have Subjective Experience? Some Lessons from the Philosophy of Mind
Moshe Idel, Artificial Anthropoids and their Dangers in Jewish Magic and Mysticism Zoom
Break 16:00-16:30
- 16:30-19:00
Sorin Antohi, Moderator
Vasile Păiș, AI for People: Building Trustworthy Systems
Tiberiu Boros, Prompts, Partners, and Pilots: How We’re Actually Using AI
Hardy Schloer, The Horror and the Blessings of Autonomous AI Systems: An Existential Question for the Future of Humanity
Itai Green, Innovation or Elimination
Gregory Claeys, Keynote Talk, The Eight Components of the AI Dystopia
- 8 May, 10:00-14:00, Aula
9:30-10:00 Welcome coffee
10:00-12:00 III.
Sorin Antohi, Moderator
Liviu Matei, Reimagining Academic Freedom in the Age of AI (Zoom)
Radu-Ioan Ursu, From Genome to Algorithm: Reframing Medical Genetics across the Biological Continuum in the Age of AI
Mihaela Bustuchină Vlaicu, AI in Neurological Diseases
Andrei Păun, AI and Medicine: Opportunities and Dangers
Petre Roman, The Impact of the AI Avalanche on Society and Human Behavior
12:10-12:15 Break
12:15-14:00 IV. Concluding Session
Dragoș Huru, Moderator
General Discussion, with the participation of the paper givers and of Ecaterina Andronescu, Sebastian Burduja, David Coates, Florin-Călin Păun, Alexandru Mironov, Florin Munteanu, Dumitru Prunariu, Varujan Vosganian.
Sorin Antohi, Concluding Remarks
Confirmed Participants
- Ecaterina Andronescu, Professor, Former Minister of Education and Science
- Sorin Antohi, Executive Director, Academia Europaea Bucharest Hub
- Tiberiu Boros, “Mihai Drăgănescu” Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Romanian Academy (ICIA)
- Sebastian Burduja, PhD, Member of Parliament, former Minister of Research, Innovation, and Digitalization, former Minister of Energy
- Mihaela Bustuchină Vlaicu, Professor of Neuroscience, INSERM and Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Paris
- Gregory Claeys, Professor Emeritus of History of the Political Thought, Royal Holloway, University of London, Member of the Academia Europaea
- David Coates, PhD, Executive Secretary, Academia Europaea, London
- Mircea Dumitru, Professor of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Member of the Romanian Academy, Academic Director, Academia Europaea Bucharest Hub
- Itai Green, Founder and CEO, Innovate Israel
- Dragoș Huru, Professor, ASE (Academy of Economic Sciences)
- Moshe Idel, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University, and Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem
- Liviu Matei, Professor of Higher Eduction and Public Policy, Head of the King’s School of Education, Communication & Society, King’s College, London
- Alexandru Mironov, Director, Știință și Tehnică
- Florin Munteanu, PhD, Director, Center for Complexity Studies, Bucharest
- Alexandru Petrescu, President of the Romanian Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF), former Minister
- Vasile Păiș, Adobe, ICIA
- Florin-Călin Păun, PhD, ARESIA, ONERA
- Andrei Păun, PhD, Director, ICIA, and University of Bucharest
- Dumitru Prunariu, Aeronautical Engineer, Cosmonaut (Soyuz-40, 14-22 May 1981), Ambassador
- Petre Roman, Professor, former Prime-Minister of Romania, President, UMEF Geneva
- Hardy Schloer, CEO Alpha Centauri, Creator of QRI
- Emil-Ioan Slușanschi, Professor, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest Polytechnic
- Gheorghe Ștefan, Professor, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest Polytechnic, Corresponding Member, Romanian Academy
- Radu-Ioan Ursu, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, “Alexandru Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest
- Varujan Vosganian, PhD, President of the Writers’ Union of Romania, former Minister of Economy and Finance
