Workshop — University of Geneva & University of Neuchâtel
A two-day interdisciplinary workshop at the intersection of philosophy, linguistics, and artificial intelligence
Illustration via Pixabay
About the Workshop
What does it mean for a system trained exclusively on text to genuinely represent and understand the world?
Since the public release of ChatGPT in late 2022, large language models (LLMs) have become a fixture of academic and public life. Yet how these systems operate, and what they are fundamentally capable of, remains poorly understood by many of its users. While many are aware that such systems are trained to predict the most likely next word (or rather token) given a context, far fewer have reflected on capacities emerging from this simple training objective, and the further implications of fine-tuning via reinforcement learning through human feedback and verifiable rewards.
An interesting starting point for the debate is a thought experiment proposed by Bender and Koller (2020) involving an infinitely smart octopus intercepting underwater telegraphic communications between two islanders. Can the octopus genuinely output meaningful text about the land-world after eavesdropping on vast amounts of the islanders’ communication about what happens there, without ever engaging with that world directly? This analogy is meant to raise the following sharper question: can an LLM’s internal states and outputs be about extra-linguistic reality, independently of the meaning human interpreters project onto them?
This workshop gathers philosophers and AI researchers to address this question and other related issues.
Speakers
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Science & AI — University of Edinburgh
Philosophy of science & AI · Explanation and understanding · Epistemology of technology
Privatdozent — University of Bern
Epistemology · Philosophy of mind & language · Artificial cognition
DSI Postdoctoral Researcher — University of Zurich (Digital Society Initiative)
Philosophy & NLP · Argumentation & logical inference · LLMs
Philosophy of AI · Representation & understanding
PhD Student — Neuro-Symbolic AI Group, Idiap & EPFL, Lausanne
Philosophy of AI · Neuro-symbolic AI
Philosophy of AI · Language models & representation
Philosophy of AI · Language models & cognition
AI · Philosophy of AI
PhD Student in Philosophy — University of Neuchâtel
Philosophy of AI
Programme
11–12 November 2026. This is a joint Geneva and Neuchâtel event, held in the Chico Mendes room at the Maison Internationale des Associations in Geneva.
Talks are scheduled for 45+15 minutes.
Practical Information
Chico Mendes room
Maison Internationale des Associations (MIA)
Rue des Savoises 15, 1205 Geneva
11–12 November 2026
Wednesday 09:30–17:00
Thursday 09:30–16:00
30 slots available
Online registration, first-come first-served. Primarily for the Geneva and Neuchâtel communities in philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. Students warmly welcome.
Talks and discussion
The two-day workshop combines speaker sessions, shared discussion, and unconference time.
Register
Attendance is limited to 30 non-speaker participants (workshop) on a first-come, first-served basis. To register your interest, send us an email under subject heading: Bookworm with a short note on your affiliation (if applicable), background and motivation until 31 October — we will confirm your place and keep you informed of all updates, the final schedule, and reading materials ahead of the event then. Student participants are very welcome!
Organisation
PhD Student in Theoretical Philosophy, University of Neuchâtel.
Co-organizer and speaker.
eliot.cellard@unine.ch
Philosopher of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva.
Co-organizer.
niels.linnemann@unige.ch
This Geneva and Neuchâtel workshop is generously sponsored by: