ai-phi #41 · Critical Perspectives on AI #1 · François Levin
For the opening session of ai-phi 4.0, we’re launching Critical Perspectives on AI, a new series exploring how criticism can become constructive: not only identifying problems and questioning assumptions, but asking how critical perspectives can help us think differently, solve problems, and open alternative paths for AI.
For this first episode, we’ll try a new format: a live podcast, recorded in front of an audience at Sony CSL Paris.
Our guest is François Levin, philosopher and author of L’intelligence par-delà l’anthropocentrisme. His work asks whether we can think about intelligence without taking human intelligence as its universal reference point — and what might follow if we stop treating artificial intelligence primarily as an imitation of ourselves.
Drawing on his doctoral research, L’intelligence artificielle au défi de ses critiques philosophiques, we’ll discuss the philosophical critiques that have accompanied AI throughout its history, what we mean when we call a system “intelligent”, the boundaries between intelligence, cognition, agency and consciousness, and whether critique can help us imagine and develop genuinely different forms of AI.
The conversation will be hosted by David Colliaux, Adel Chaibi and Aïda Elamrani.
About François Levin
François Levin is a postdoctoral researcher in philosophy at Grenoble Alpes University. He received his PhD in philosophy from École Polytechnique in 2024. His research focuses on the political and epistemological issues raised by artificial intelligence. He previously worked as a rapporteur at the French Digital Council (Conseil national du numérique) and was a member of the Villani mission on artificial intelligence.
Language
🇫🇷 The conversation will be held in French.
We are exploring live English captions for the online stream. The recording will subsequently be released on YouTube with translated subtitles.
📅 Thursday, 8 October 2026 · 10:30–12:00
📍 Sony CSL Paris · 6 rue Amyot, 75005 Paris
More information: https://ai-phi.github.io/