Logic Lounge with Moshe Y. Vardi and Henry Shevlin
Date: Friday, July 25, 2025 Time: 12pm-1pm
Venue: CAV 2025 (Zagreb, Croatia)
Are AI minds genuine minds?
The question “Are AI minds genuine minds?” invites us to examine the nature of mind itself and whether artificial intelligence meets its defining criteria. A genuine mind is typically associated with consciousness, self-awareness, intentionality, and the capacity to experience mental states such as emotions. Whether AI qualifies as possessing a true mind ultimately depends on how we define the essential qualities of consciousness and intelligence. This question lies at the heart of the discussion.
About Moshe Vardi
Moshe Y. Vardi is faculty member at Rice University. He is a University Professor, the Karen Ostrum George Distinguished Service Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University, a Professor of Computer Science, a member of the Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology, and a Fellow for Science and Technology Policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy. At Rice, he is leading an Initiative on Technology, Culture, and Society. His research interests focus on automated reasoning, a branch of Artificial Intelligence with broad applications to computer science, including machine learning, database theory, computational-complexity theory, knowledge in multi-agent systems, computer-aided verification, and teaching logic across the curriculum.
About Henry Shevlin
Henry Shevlin is Associate Director and Education Director at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, where he also serves as Co-Director of the Kinds of Intelligence Programme. Henry a philosopher of cognitive science and AI ethicist, with specialisations in artificial intelligence and animal minds. Recurrent topics in his work include consciousness, creativity, intelligence, perception, short-term memory, and the psychological measurement of pain and suffering.
Organizers
The LogicLounge is hosted by the 37rd International Conference on Computer-Aided Verification (CAV) and organized by Bettina Könighofer in collaboration with the Vienna Center for Logic and Algorithms at TU Wien (VCLA) and supported by Roderick Bloem and Georg Weissenbacher.
About the LogicLounge series
The series of public lectures LogicLounge continues to bring together the general public and the experts from the fields of logic, philosophy, mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence. Since its inception at the Vienna Summer of Logic in 2014 – the largest event in the history of logic – the series has since been traveling between Vienna and the venue of the CAV (International Conference on Computer-Aided Verification), where it has already become a regular event in honor of Prof. Helmut Veith (1971-2016).
Sponsor
This year’s LogicLounge was kindly sponsored by Stiftung SIC.
