On October 14th, AI-HSS hosted the 15th "Humanities × Technology" Thinkers’ Forum. The theme of this forum was "Cognitive Disruption Brought by Generative Artificial Intelligence". Professor Cheng Sumei, a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Deputy Director of the Physics Philosophy Professional Committee of the Chinese Society for Dialectics of Nature, and Vice President of the Shanghai Philosophy Society, has been specially invited to be the keynote speaker.

At the beginning of the forum, Professor Wan Xiaolong extended a warm welcome and sincere gratitude to Professor Cheng for her visit to UESTC for exchange. He also briefly introduced Professor Cheng’s main research directions and outstanding achievements.

During the forum, Professor Cheng deeply analyzed the profound impact of generative artificial intelligence on the field of human cognition. She pointed out that this technology not only gave rise to the "artificial cognitive approach" and the "human-machine hybrid cognitive subject", but also brought about ten cognitive challenges, including the weakening of expert authority, the transfer of cognitive power, algorithmic consensus becoming a new truth mechanism, and the intensification of the intelligence gap. She further reviewed the five transformations that human cognitive paradigms have undergone—from language, writing, printing, the Internet to the rise of AI, emphasizing that we are standing at a critical juncture of the fifth cognitive transformation.

In addition, Professor Cheng called on all sectors to jointly pay attention to the risk of cognitive power imbalance, emphasizing that the achievements of artificial intelligence must serve public rationality and social well-being, lay the ethical foundation for technological development with humanistic spirit, and guide the transformation of cognitive paradigms towards a more humanized direction.

During the Q&A and interaction session, Professor Yuan Qin from UESTC and Professor Cheng engaged in an in-depth conversation. The topic focused on cutting-edge fields such as "Artificial Intelligence Empowering Chinese Education", "Embodied Intelligence and Humanoid Robots", and "Philosophical Speculation on Brain-Computer Interfaces". The exchange of ideas and sharing of insights between the two scholars brought the atmosphere to a climax.

This forum has built a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue, reflecting on artificial intelligence from a philosophical perspective and providing important ideological resources for the future development of science and technology.