Mihaela Constantinescu (CCEA Exc. Dir.), recently tackled the "Future of AI Companions" at the 8th CAIR/AI4Society event in Pretoria.
Mihaela presented research on the vicious bonding of AI designed as true friends, arguing that such attachments can be detrimental to genuine human flourishing.
Mihaela Constantinescu (UB) and Muel Kaptein (Erasmus) just published a new article!
They introduce the M3 Approach, arguing that LLM-developing organizations are key "interaction nodes" and must bear broader responsibility for harms.
Open access article:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
With profound grief, today we say our final goodbyes to our beloved friend and co-founder, Emi Socaciu.
Emi was a brilliant philosopher and a true mentor at CCEA. His kindness, insightful mind, and dedicated spirit will remain an immense inspiration for us all. We carry on his work.
Rest in peace. 🙏
📢Newly published article by our Executive Director Mihaela Constantinescu:
"Do GenAI avatars open new responsibility gaps?"
Article link (open access): link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#ERC #avataResponsibility #CCEA #AIethics #MihaelaConstantinescu
Big week in Barcelona!
Our Director, Emilian Mihailov (YAE member), is attending the 36th Annual Conference of Academia Europaea (AE) and the 14th Conference of the Young Academy of Europe.
Catch his talk on "Public trust in science" this Friday, 17 oct.! 🇪🇸
Link ⬇️
#AcademiaEuropaea #YAE #CCEA
Mihaela Constantinescu (CCEA Exe.Dir.) at Her Space Festival Romania speaking about techno-moral virtues!
🗓️ Sat, Oct 18 @ 2:30 PM (Urban Hub, Bucharest)
We have limited complimentary invitations!
Email ASAP to request one:
📩 ccea.info@filosofie.unibuc.ro
#HerSpaceFestival #avataResponsibility
ERC InfoDay on Oct 14th! ⏰
Our colleague, Mihaela Constantinescu (ERC Ambassador), will be there representing CCEA to share strategies for the ERC Work Programme 2026.
Deadline to register is Oct 12th!
🔗 Sign up: www.ncp.uefiscdi.ro/event-detail...
#ERC #ERCFunding #ERCAmbassador #AERC
The AI Personhood, Agency, and Responsibility workshop, part of ERC project LEGACY: Agency in law (Visa Kurki) was a succes!
@raduuszkai.bsky.social, Mihaela Constantinescu, and @oana-ceocea.bsky.social met with international researchers from Finland, Japan, and the U.S.
Many thanks to all!
Exciting news! This week, a two-day workshop will take place at Helsinki University on AI Personhood, Agency, and Responsibility in Law and Philosophy, hosted by LEGACY: Agency in Law.
Mihaela Constantinescu, @raduuszkai.bsky.social and @oana-ceocea.bsky.social will be representing the CCEA team.
Our colleague Mihaela Constantinescu is joining Dragos Stanca (Upgrade 100 / Ethical Media Alliance) in a conversation on AI and digital philosophy in marketing at IMPACT Bucharest 2025.
📍 We are at Face Convention Center today, September 17!
👉 Full agenda: impactbucharest.com/agenda22/
Happy to share that CCEA was present at the Digital Duplicates Workshop, organized by the National University of Singapore on September 4-5.
Top researchers discussed one of the hottest topics in applied ethics: digital duplicates, avatars, AI, and neurotechnologies.
CCEA Exc. Dir., Mihaela Constantinescu, recently experienced groundbreaking robotic technology at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa, Italy!
Mihaela tested ergoCub, a robot that can function both in teleoperation (avatar) mode and highly autonomously with integrated LLMs.
#Robotics #AI
"AI for Flourishing" Workshop at the University of Navarra has ended successfully.
Huge thanks to all, especially to Mihaela Constantinescu (CCEA Exc. Dir.), for amazing discussions!
Key takeaway: AI helps human flourishing when designed and used ethically, with a human-centered approach.
Mihaela Constantinescu (CCEA Exc. Dir.) is speaking today at the "AI for Flourishing Workshop", at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain! 🇪🇸
Her talk, "How should we live well with LLMs?", will be discussed by prof. Alejo Sison.
Details:
www.unav.edu/eventos/-/ev...
👏Congrats to our CCEA researcher & #avataResponsibility member @raduuszkai.bsky.social for participating with timely talks at the "AI Ethics Explored" workshop (University of Porto) and "The 15th Braga Meetings on Ethics and Political Philosophy" conference (CEPS, University of Minho) in Portugal!
NIHAI project kicks off with the conference on "AI Assertion", June 22-23, 2025.
CCEA Team: Mihaela Constantinescu (PI), Alexandra Zorilă, Cristina Voinea and Cristina Tofan, are involved. Emilian Mihailov (CCEA Dir) is an invited speaker.
More info and program:
talkingtobots.net?page_id=15
Emilian Mihailov (CCEA Director), delivered a fantastic talk on the moral psychology of impartiality at the University of Granada in Spain. 🇪🇸
Emilian's research on the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale and Kantian impartiality can be explored here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Mihaela Constantinescu (CCEA Exc. Dir.), will be speaking at the "AI for Flourishing Workshop" on June 30, 2025, at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain! 🇪🇸
Her talk, "How should we live well with LLMs?", will be discussed by prof. Alejo Sison.
Registration is open:
lnkd.in/dRn5DfZP%22
A huge thank you to all our brilliant speakers for the insightful discussions at the "Artificial agency and responsibility: the rise of LLM-powered avatars" workshop last week! 👏
We're looking forward to the next #avataResponsibility workshop in 2026.
Stay tuned for details!
🤖Let’s explore the puzzle of artificial agency and responsibility in the context of LLM-powered avatars through insights from #AIethics, #SocialOntology, and #PhilosophyOfLaw.
📅 May 22–23, 2025
📍 Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest
More details here: www.ccea.ro/artificial-a...
📢Upcoming workshop in our ERC Starting Grant (@erc.europa.eu) project #avataResponsibility: ”Artificial agency and responsibility: the rise of LLM-powered avatars" on May 22-23, 2025, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest.
More details here:
www.ccea.ro/artificial-a...
Great news! 🇷🇴 Mihaela Constantinescu (Exec Dir CCEA / Lecturer Uni Bucharest) has been appointed Ambassador for the ERC in Romania!
The newly launched "Ambassadors for the ERC" network is a joint initiative by the European Research Council (@erc.europa.eu) & AERG (@ercgrantees.bsky.social).
#Amb4ERC
A colour portrait photograph of postdoctoral researcher Cristina Voinea, smiling
Cristina Voinea is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow and a hosted researcher at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. Her research primarily revolves around understanding the impact of digital technologies on both individual and societal well-being. Cristina’s work delves into a range of critical themes within this domain, including responsibility in the realm of artificial intelligence, the influence of persuasive technologies, and the potential use of technology for cognitive and moral enhancement.
A color portrait photograph of PhD researcher and assistant professor Anda Zahiu, smiling and with her arms crossed.
Anda Zahiu is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, and a member of the Research Centre in Applied Ethics. Her current PhD research revolves around issues pertaining to tax and transfer redistributive schemes. She has a background in moral and political philosophy. Anda’s research interests include new and emerging technologies, with a particular focus on Virtual Reality and digital avatars. Her last article was published in Ethics and Information Technology.
(4/4) Wrapping up our team introductions with Cristina Voinea, a postdoc researcher exploring the impact of digital technologies, and Anda Zahiu, PhD researcher and assistant professor with research interests in VR and digital avatars.
Visit our website to learn more about us and our work 🥇
A colour portrait of Mihnea Dobre, Senior researcher at CCEA
My research focus is on the history of philosophy and science; in particular, on the relations between philosophy, science, and religion in the early modern period. I am interested in new scholarly approaches (Digital Humanities) and different ways of communicating and disseminating research results (Open Science). Beside journal articles and contributed chapters to collective volumes, I published two monographs, co-edited two volumes, and collaborated in the production of two Open Access scholarly editions. I am a book review editor at the Centaurus, the Journal of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS).
A black and white photograph of Radu Uszkai smiling and resting on his hand, Postdoctoral Researcher at CCEA
Radu Uszkai teaches Philosophy and Business Ethics at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies where he works as an Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences. He also works as a researcher at the Research Center in Applied Ethics, University of Bucharest. Radu holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Bucharest since 2015, with a thesis on the ethics of intellectual property and digital piracy. His research is focused on applied ethics (with an emphasis on new and emerging technologies), political philosophy (mainly on classical liberal ideas) and the philosophy of pop culture. He has recently published papers in journals like Philosophy & Technology, Ethics and Information Technology and Frontiers in Robotics and AI. His first book, dedicated to the ethics of copyright, was published in 2024 by Bucharest University Press.
More brilliant minds from the CCEA team!
Meet Mihnea Dobre, whose research explores the history of philosophy and science, and Radu Uszkai, who specializes in applied ethics with a focus on new technologies.
A colour portrait photograph of Emilian Mihailov, Centre director and Senior research
Emilian Mihailov is the Director of the Research Centre in Applied Ethics (CCEA) and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest. His research domains are neuroethics, bioethics, and philosophical moral psychology. He has published on the ethics of enhancement and experimental bioethics in leading journals such as the American Journal of Bioethics, Science and Engineering Ethics, Bioethics, Consciousness & Cognition. He previously led a national research project dedicated to moral and cognitive enhancement (ENHATEC). Senior Researcher, Director
A colour portrait photograph of Constantin, a senior researcher at the center
Constantin Vică teaches courses at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, on ethics and politics of new technologies, the philosophy of history – the philosophy of the future, digital culture, etc., and is a researcher at the Research Center in Applied Ethics. He has co-authored articles in Science and Engineering Ethics, Ethics and Information Technology, Philosophy & Technology, International Journal of Social Robotics, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, Philosophical Psychology, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Topoi, etc. In 2019, he co-edited the volume Vremuri noi, vremuri vechi. Jurnal 2007–2013 by Mihail Radu Solcan. In 2023, he published Civilizație algoritmică și viața în lumea digitală (Algorithmic Civilization and Life in the Digital World) with the University of Bucharest Press.
Continuing our introductions to the amazing CCEA team!
Meet Emilian Mihailov, our Director, and Constantin Vică, Senior Researcher.
Emilian's research focuses on neuroethics and bioethics, while Constantin explores the ethics and politics of new technologies 🤖
CCEA's team is made up of professors and researchers from universities in Romania and other countries, as well as doctoral students, master's students, and undergraduate students from the University of Bucharest. Let’s find out more about each of our key team members: meet the team
A photograph of Mihaela Constantinescu, CCEA's Executive director sat at a desk, behind a laptop, with a microphone near and talking at a conference.
Mihaela Constantinescu is a lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Romania, and executive director of the Research Centre in Applied Ethics (CCEA). Her research areas include virtue ethics, business ethics, Human-Robot Interaction, and AI ethics, with a focus on the normative interplay between the concepts of moral responsibility and moral agency in relation to individuals, organisations, and AI systems. Her articles were published in journals such as Ethics and Information Technology, Philosophy & Technology, International Journal of Social Robotics, Journal of Business Ethics. She is co-author of the book “Institutionalizing ethics: mechanisms and instruments” (in Romanian). Find out more at CCEA.RO/ECHIPA and AVATARESPONSABILITY.CCEA.RO/MEMBERS
Meet CCEA's team! 👋
Professors, researchers, & students dedicated to exploring ethical challenges.
Starting with Mihaela Constantinescu, our Executive Director, an expert in areas like virtue ethics & AI ethics.
Learn more about our key members in this thread! (1/4)
Social media graphic post titled "What is CCEA?" and showing a thinking emoji. We've been around for 20 years, but what do we actually do? Hint: It's all about ethics!
Social media graphic post talking about what the CCEA stands for and who founded it. CCEA Stands for The Research Centre in Applied Ethics. You can find us at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Philosophy. Founded by Professor Valentin Mureșan back in 2004, we're Romania's only research center dedicated to systematically studying & researching diverse ethical disciplines, from classical moral theories to AI ethics. We foster academic debate and encourage public reflection on ethical issues.
Social media graphic post talking about CCEA's activities and research focus: We advance frontier research in applied ethics, offer Master's & PhD programs, ethical consulting for organizations, we engage in public discourse through debates and media appearances. We promote a Socratic approach to ethics, facilitating reflection & collaboration across diverse fields like biomedicine, technology, business, and environmental science.
final slide in the post: Our current projects include avataResponsibility (ERC Starting Grant: Avatar agency. Moral responsibility at the intersection of individual, collective, and artificial social entities in emergent avatar communities) NIHAI (Norms of Assertion in Linguistic Human-AI Interaction developing ethical guidelines for chatbots). CHANGER (CHAllenges and innovative chaNGes in research Ethics Reviews) Ready to explore the ethical challenges of today's world? avataresponsibility.ccea.ro talkingtobots.net changer-project.eu
CCEA is now on Bluesky! 🦋 🎉
Explore the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence with us. Follow for updates on our research, events, and the avataResponsibility project.
You can also find us on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn!
#AppliedEthics #ResponsibleAI #avataResponsibility #NIHAI #CHANGER
