In recent decades, the research and development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the fields of science, technology, and medicine have become increasingly important. However, historical research into these fields, but also in many other disciplines, was not pursued intensively enough for a long time. Yet AI technologies go back to the 1950s and today’s AI differs in many aspects from its previous incarnations. But projects have only recently begun addressing AI’s history, some of which have resulted in special issues. Participants of the Mellon Sawyer seminar series, for example, edited a BJHS Themes issue on “Histories of artificial intelligence: a genealogy of power” (2023). The “IGGI” project edited an issue of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing on “European Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence” (2023).

These initiatives contribute to mapping various environments around AI and deserve to be enriched with further and deeper historical studies. For this, we suggest looking back on the environments that were created with, for, owing to, or within AI and its various technologies. With environments, we embrace both wide and narrow aspects of how AI appeared, (re)produced, (co)created, dismissed, and encouraged scientific, technical, and medical knowledge and phenomena. By focusing on historical aspects, we raise and reconsider the issues that are still relevant for the development of AI. And since social and ethical issues are gaining more critical implications in today’s agenda, an attentive gaze at the recent or deeper history will help to make sense of the future developments in science, technology, and medicine.

Each participant should prepare a first draft of a paper (approx. 50 000 characters incl. blanks) to be circulated prior to the workshop. During the workshop, participants will briefly present their research question, core theses, and potential problems or discussion points they wish to discuss (5 mins.) followed by 40 mins. of in-depth discussions of each paper with invited experts. We have two working languages – German and English. Workshop participants will be offered the option of submitting their paper to a special issue in the NTM journal.

Applications should be sent to KI-Umwelten@deutsches-museum.de until 29th February, including an abstract (approx. 1500 characters incl. blanks) and a short biography. We’ll circulate our decisions by 4th March. The first drafts will be due on 15th May to be circulated to all attendants.

We will be able to contribute towards participants’ travel and accommodation expenses (up to 300€ total).

The workshop is funded by the “Junge Perspektiven” programme of the German Society for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology (GWMT). It is organised by Liliia Zemnukhova, a STS researcher who’s working on the ethics of AI, and Helen Piel and Rudolf Seising, two historians of science working on artificial intelligence and cognitive science. They are all based at the Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany.