I will be hosting the "Societal Outreach Initiatives for Artificial Life" workshop at ALIFE 2025 (Kyoto, Japan).

Created in April 23, 2025

2025

I will be hosting the “Societal Outreach Initiatives for Artificial Life” workshop at ALIFE2025. Click for more information.

Along with Emily Dolson, I will be hosting the “Societal Outreach Initiatives for Artificial Life” workshop at ALIFE2025, where we try to improve the outreach efforts for Artificial Life.

Does ALIFE have a “marketing problem”?

Despite significant scientific advancements in Artificial Life over the past four decades, its impact and understanding remains largely confined to academic circles. While initiatives like the ALIFE newsletter, encyclopaedia, various podcasts, and other web resources are attempting to address this, we believe more direct public engagement is crucial. Having outreach channels that can directly communicate artificial life to the public offers an excellent way to promote artificial life as a field, as well as improve public scientific literacy. Improving public knowledge in this way also provides a potential buffer against disinformation or mischaracterisation of artificial life research in the future.

This interactive workshop aims to bring together conference attendees interested in extending the reach of artificial life to the wider public. We will begin with short invited talks showcasing current outreach efforts and then break out into roundtable discussions to brainstorm how we can improve current initiatives (such as the ALIFE newsletter and ALIFE Encyclopaedia) and generate new ways to improve the societal outreach of artificial life. Attendees are encouraged to register their interest and prepare potential ideas and discussion points in advance, although space will be provided for new ideas on the day.

This workshop aims to serve as a springboard for 1-3 new societal outreach initiatives, which attendees will be encouraged to champion and further develop.

Attendees should try to register their interest in advance and submit ideas for discussion ahead of time. More details will be made available in July 2025.