Information
The emergence of artificial intelligence — large language models, autonomous AI agents, robotics — may represent one of the most significant transformations in human cognitive history, comparable to the emergence of language, writing, or the internet.
Human cognition has always evolved in constant interaction with its environment and tools. AI is now becoming a central part of that environment: it shapes how we think, and we shape how it develops. This recursive co-evolution raises fundamental questions about the nature of mind, agency, and what it means to be human.
Mind in the Age of AI
August 19th 2026, 9am – 5pm, University of Turku
Pre-workshop for the Agential Capacities in Context Workshop, University of Turku
This pre-workshop explores these questions under the broad theme “Mind in the Age of AI.” The concept of mind is understood widely, encompassing cognitive processes (including metacognition, attention, and executive function), consciousness and phenomenological experience, agency and free will, and motivation and emotion.
Key questions include: How does AI reshape human cognition — not just as a tool, but as a co-evolving cognitive partner? How do human and AI biases interact in recursive loops? Can AI systems be genuine agents or conscious beings? What values should guide AI development? And beyond diagnosing risks and disruptions: where do we want to go? What vision of human flourishing should orient us in this moment of rapid change?
The pre-workshop features accessible, research-informed presentations followed by extended discussion. It serves as a broad opening to the main Agential Capacities in Context workshop (June 20 – 21), funneling from large civilizational questions toward specific cognitive capacities.
Registration for both events: https://www.lyyti.fi/reg/Agential_Capacities_in_Context2026
This project is part of the project Transform-AI, funded by the Strategic Research Council.
The program
Mind in the Age of AI
Pre-workshop for the Agential Capacities in Context Workshop, University of Turku, August 19, 2026
| Time | Content |
|---|---|
| 9:00–9:20 | Welcome and introductory round |
| 9:20–10:00 | Pii Telakivi — Living With AI-Extenders: Ethical Challenges to Mental Autonomy |
| 10:00–10:40 | Heidi Haanila — Can Artificial Intelligence Be a Self? |
| 10:40–11:20 | Susanne Uusitalo — AI Use and Addiction |
| 11:20–11:50 | ☕ Coffee break |
| 11:50–12:30 | Christopher Schwartz — Dijkstra’s Paradox |
| 12:30–13:10 | Tommi Buder-Gröndahl — Do LLMs Have a Language of Thought? |
| 13:10–13:50 | Marina Trakas & Diana Pérez — Memory Biases and AI |
| 13:50–15:20 | 🍽️ Lunch (90 min) |
| 15:20–16:00 | Jussi Jylkkä — AI as Metacognitive Mirror |
| 16:00–16:40 | Elias Kunnas — Human-AI Cognitive Partnership as Public Interface |
| 16:40–17:20 | Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä — When the Strategy Room Thinks |
| 17:20 | → Dinner |
