16 - 18 September 2025, Universitätsclub Bonn, Germany

The Bonn Sustainable AI Lab and the Institute for Science and Ethics are pleased to announce the Sustainable AI Conference 2025 - Shaping Sustainable AI and its Futures!

The call for abstracts is now open!

• Conference website
• YouTube promotion video

Workshop, May 23-24, Bonn, Germany

As AI development takes over headlines across the globe, it becomes clearer how such technologies have pushed societies toward further environmental exploitation and wealth and power concentration. Such development has often overlooked the diverse cultural, historical, and social contexts of marginalised communities, in particular Indigenous groups and those from the Majority World. To foster a multifaceted perspective on AI ethics, a pluriversal approach needs to be employed.

This two-day workshop “AI Ethics from the Majority World: Reconstructing the Global Debate Through Decolonial Lenses” offers a forum to discuss alternatives to the status quo of AI ethics. Hosted by the University of Bonn’s Institute for Sciences and Ethics, the workshop aims to advance a reconstruction of the proliferated perspectives of AI ethics, dominantly shaped by ethical standards from historically hegemonic groups in the Minority World, by examining the plural decolonial schools of thought that challenge the positions that have shaped AI development worldwide.

Speakers:  

• Deivison Faustino, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil
• Husein Inusah, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
• Modestha Mensah, University of Ghana, Ghana
• Dodzi Koku Hattoh, University of Ghana, Ghana
• Melanie Cheung, Indigenous AI, New Zealand
• Wakanyi Hoffman, The New Institute, Germany
• Samuel Segun, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
• Erick Tambo, United Nations University, Cameroon
• Dylan Merrick, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Click here for more information and for the videos of the workshop.

May 30th to June 1st  2023, Universitätsclub Bonn, Germany

This is the second Sustainable AI conference organized by the Bonn Sustainable AI lab at Bonn University’s Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE). The focus of the first conference in June 2021 was to create a community of researchers in the space of Sustainable AI and to raise awareness on the topic. The second conference will focus on cross cultural perspectives to address the variety and scope of ethical issues on a global scale. An inspiration for this theme is to acknowledge the reality that certain countries play an integral role in the early
production phase and the waste management but may never experience the benefits of AI.

Keynote Speakers:  

• Prof. Dr. Shannon Vallor, University of Edinburgh
• Prof. Dr. Caesar Atuire, University of Ghana
• Prof. Dr. Benedetta Brevini, University of Sydney and London School of Economics
• Prof. Dr. Ulises Mejias, SUNY Oswego College
  

Please visit www.sustainable-ai-conference.eu for more information.

On the 15th till the 16th of June 2023, the IWE will welcome Prof. Dr. Andrew Feenberg (Simon Faser University, Canada) to give a public lecture and a workshop.

Professor Feenberg is one of the most important voices in the philosophy of technology of the last 30 years. He has written numerous books on critical theory of technology or critical constructivism in which he perceives technology as political objects. As such, he proposes ways to democratize technology. His work is relevant for all who are interested in technology, philosophy, ethics, sociology, politics, etc.

The public lecture (15th of June) is open for everyone. The workshop (16th of June) is open to all academic researchers of the University of Bonn, with priority to PhD students. Registration and more information via [email protected].

For more information see the flyer!

The special issue of the Sustainability journal "Towards the Sustainability of AI; Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Investigate the Hidden Costs of AI" has now been completed.

Prints will be available in the near future!

Click here for more information.

Bonn Sustainable AI conference 2023: "Sustainable AI Across Borders"

Deadline for abstract submission: January 31st 2023
Conference: May 30th to June 1st 2023

Visit the conference website for more information:
www.sustainable-ai-conference.eu

The Sustainable AI Lab hosted an interdisciplinary and interactive discussion exploring the ways AI is re-shaping common goods, such as public space and state-society relations.

The event took place at COP 27 on 15 November 2022.

Click here for further information including photos and a full video.

The University of Bonn-University of St Andrews Brussels Discussion Series brings together leading experts from both institutions to explore, challenge, and encourage lively debate around some of the most pressing issues facing European and global societies today.

From Bonn, Aimee van Wynsberghe, Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Applied Ethics of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bonn will participate in the panel.

October 17 2022, 11:00 CET, Scotland House Brussels.

Click here for more information and registration.

The beginning of September 2022 saw the first ever G7 Global Inclusion Summit in Berlin, hosted by the Federal Government Commissioner for Matters relating to Persons with Disabilities. The aim of the summit was to work together to enable more participation for people with disabilities in the G7 countries and to tackle global challenges together, also from the perspective of inclusion.

Prof. van Wynsberghe was invited to give a keynote on the impact of artificial intelligence on persons with disabilities. She highlighted how disability studies and scholars are largely excluded from the AI bias debate although the use of AI often exacerbates the marginalisation of persons with disabilities.

Click here for more information.

The Bonn Sustainable AI Lab team was very excited to travel to Austria for one of the most important festivals for digital art: Ars Electronica. The festival took place from 7-11 September 2022 in Linz, Austria, and focussed on the interlinkages between art, technology and society.

At the festival, the ArtScience Residency’s winner Irakli Sabekia presented his ‘Archive of Spatial Knowledge’, the artwork he created in the framework of the residency with the Sustainable AI Lab.

Aimee van Wynsberghe and Irakli Sabekia participated in the panel “Residency. But How?” and shared their experiences with the residency programme.

Click here for more information or here to view a video of the panel.

The Academy of Sciences and Literature has admitted six new members. Among them is Humboldt Professor Aimee van Wynsberghe. The AI ethicist from the University of Bonn has become a full member of the Humanities and Social Sciences Class.

Click here for more information.

In May 2022 the Bonn Sustainable AI Lab team travelled to Accra, Ghana, for the workshop “Sustainable AI Across Borders,” which was jointly organised by the lab and the Department of Philosophy and Classics at the University of Ghana, Legon.

“The purpose of this trip was to strengthen the partnership that we have, to share research ideas and to plan for fruitful collaborations in the future,” says Prof. Dr Aimee van Wynsberghe, the lab’s director.

Click here for more information as well as photos and a video.

CfA Senior Fellowship "Desirable Digitalisation"

Start: August/September 2022
Duration: 2.5 years, extendable once
Application deadline: July 31 2022

Please click here or more information.

9. June 2022, 17:00 – 19:00

Language: English

Place: Foyer Headquarter Deutsche Telekom, Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 140, 53113 Bonn (open for everybody) or ONLINE-STREAM.

Speaker: Irakli Sabekia (Artist), Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe (Sustainable AI Lab, University Bonn), Antje Hundhausen (Vice President Brand Experience, Deutsche Telekom)

Moderator: Laura Welzenbach (Head of Ars Electronica Export)

Click here for more information.

Aimee van Wynsberghe, Scott Robbins

in: Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4829

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084829

Aimee van Wynsberghe, Larissa Bolte, Tijs Vandemeulebroucke

in: Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4472

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084472

“My team at the Bonn Sustainable AI Lab and I are incredibly excited to collaborate with Špela Petrič and Irakli Sabekia, two exceptional artists with fascinating project ideas. Their proposals deal with two very different but equally pressing and relevant topics – the usage of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector and the Russian occupation of territories in Georgia. They are concerned with the wider issues of global injustice and power and making the hidden visible, which is a strong connection to the research happening at the Bonn Sustainable AI Lab. Bringing art, science and ethics together is one of our lab’s key goals, so I look forward to many inspiring encounters and exchanges between our lab team and the artists.”
(Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe, March 2022)

Click here for more information.

Aimee van Wynsberghe is the Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Artificial Intelligence (AI).

• More information about Aimee van Wynsberghe and the professorship.
• Promo video about the professorship (YouTube)

Talk and discussion with Dr. Taylor Stone from the Sustainable AI Lab on March, 17^th 2022 at Universität Freiburg. Click here for more information.

Stiftung Mercator awards €3.8 Million to the Universities of Bonn and Cambridge.
Click here for more information.

Interview with AI expert Aimee van Wynsberghe and philosopher Markus Gabriel, University of Bonn
Tagesspiegel, February 8^th, 2022 (in German only)

Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe speakes at the kick-off event "Europe 2022" on February, 8^th 2022.
Click here for more information.

Together with Ars Electronica the Art Collection Deutsche Telekom enables artistic research through science collaboration within the framework of the ArtScience residency. The goal is to exhibit an artwork dedicated to the challenging questions around digitalization and AI at the Ars Electronica Festival in September 2022.
Click here for more information.

In the ten-part podcast series "KI und Wir", AI experts from the Humboldt Network - including Aimee van Wynsberghe - report from their research area and clarify the most important questions about artificial intelligence. The podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Podcast.de, Amazon Music or Deezer. Click here for more information.

On November 25th, 2021 the Bonn Sustainable AI Lab at the University of Bonn had its official launch event. A wide range of highly regarded speakers like Katja Dörner, Mayor of Bonn, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change and Dr. Enno Aufderheide, Secretary General of the Humboldt Foundation, addressed the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on society and expressed the urgency to conduct more research and experiments on AI to get a grip on its rapid development. The Rector of the University of Bonn, Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael Hoch, and the co-director of the Institute of Science and Ethics (IWE) and head of the Sustainable AI Lab, Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe, performed the opening ceremony.

A short clip of the lab launch is available on YouTube.

Presentation by Charlotte Bander (Lab Manager) on the topic AI and Climate. November 22nd 2021, virtual event

The Sustainable AI Lab of the University of Bonn is on a mission at COP26 in Glasgow

While there is a growing number of research publications directed towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the Sustainable Development Goals, there is little research addressing, the often hidden, environmental costs of AI. The Sustainable AI Lab of the University of Bonn (Germany) addresses this topic and is present at COP26 with a unique artwork to remind people of what nature is doing and that AI is getting in the way of this. The head of the Lab, Prof. Aimee van Wynsberghe, will speak at the conference on November 10th at 11:00.

• More information (www.uni-bonn.de)
• Website of the Art Work
• Video of Aimee van Wynsberghe's speech (YouTube)

As a result of the conference on Sustainable AI in June 2021, the Lab team announced to publish a special issue of the Sustainability Journal. Contributions from the perspectives of computer sciences, philosophy, (applied) AI ethics, social sciences, law and policy, and others are welcome and encouraged. The submission deadline is February 28, 2022.

The Lab has commissioned and funded a research project on the topic of “Data Pollution and Power (DPP)”, led and conducted by Dr. Gry Hasselbalch. The research project explores the power dynamics that shape the data pollution of AI across the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to the establishment of a DPP group, a DPP white paper will be published in 2022.

The University of Bonn launched the world's first International conference on the topic of "Sustainable AI" in June 2021.

The whole conference is now available on YouTube.

More information can be found at the website of the conference.