Artificial Life studies the nature of the living state, by modeling and synthesizing living systems on Earth and beyond. Because this endeavour provides multidisciplinary understanding crucial for us to find our place within the Earth's ecosystems, it may in turn help us construct a positive and balanced continued future for the whole biosphere.

 

The purpose of this workshop is to discuss how Artificial Life research can benefit both human society and enhance the life of all organisms on the planet. How can our research make direct, concrete contributions towards the sustainability of Earth’s natural ecosystems? How can our research enhance human well-being, raise those living in hardship, and help people to shed disadvantage or difficulty? In short, how can Artificial Life be driven or applied purposefully for social and environmental good?

 

The aim for the workshop is the initiation of new means to encourage Artificial Life research towards sustained, positive impact with the potential to be felt beyond the field. This will be addressed via an open-ended discussion that begins to set objectives for consideration as end-goals, and for describing means by which progress towards the goals can be monitored or assessed.

 

We are planning a virtual workshop, divided in two rooms, so that as many participants as possible may come and chime in. The current idea is to have the themes of sessions defined on Trello board, following an unconference format. We may propose a fallback structure though, with 4 sessions: (1) theoretical tools and technologies to contribute to environmental issues and sustainability, (2) research in ALife for the benefit of society in terms of economic development, mobility and public safety, (3) the improvement of the quality of individual lives such as relating to health and wellness, and (4) open-ended discussion on concrete projects to preserve all forms of life, such as a dedicated ALife for Good award.

 

The workshop also plans to invite a few speakers to lead the discussions, with input on different important angles, including – but not limited to – representatives from the community, ALifers engaged in policy-making, ALifers from industry.

 

Lastly, we also plan to have the workshop connect with the AI industry, which has expressed a desire to connect further with the ALife field. We have already reached out to several players in the industry (namely AI companies: Cross Compass in Tokyo and ElementAI in Montréal) that may help in diverse ways, including sending participants to contribute to the workshop, and also offered some funding to invite relevant speakers. This seems to connect particularly well with the theme of ALIFE2020: “New Frontiers in AI: What can ALife offer AI?”.