WASP-HS

Workshop: The Politics of Models – Bias, Representation & Transparency in Generative Models
2026-08-25 - 2026-08-27 | Rånäs slott, Rånäs Slott 762 96, 762 96, Sweden
Generative models can capture an abstract representation of various modalities such as sound, images, video, text, and data. These models are now globally utilized for knowledge and content organization and synthesis. The generative AI models are integrated rapidly into research, industry, culture, and the public sectors; where the accelerated growth hinders the considerations into societal implications of these rapid advancements. These models are new forms of knowledge representation, in which the technical choices such as applied ontology or categorizations as well as the data sources and gathering processes, influence, imply, and afford new forms of power and control on representation, history, culture, and knowledge associations. Addressing these issues requires both technical advancement and research as well as societal grounding, awareness in positionality, and critical engagements. This workshop creates a shared space for WASP and WASP-HS researchers with the goal to build interdisciplinary research directions to influence a better and healthier societal integration of generative AI.
Topics
Representation & BiasAnalysis of representation and bias in generative models across modalities – sound, images, video, text, and data.
Power & ControlUnderstanding the new forms of power and control enabled through generative AI over representation, history, and culture.
Transparency & AccountabilityBuilding frameworks for transparent and accountable deployment of generative models in research and society.
Societal AlignmentAligning technical solutions with societal expectations, needs, and values for a healthier integration of AI.

Schedule

August 25: Arrival & Opening
Welcome lunch, introductory sessions, and evening reception at Rånäs Slott. From lunch onwards

August 26: Full Day of Sessions
Keynotes, interdisciplinary panels, collaborative workshops, and research discussions. Full day

August 27: Closing & Departure
Final sessions, synthesis of ideas, future directions, and farewell lunch. Ends with lunch

Expression of interest
Apply by April 17 to secure your spot. This workshop is open to researchers from both WASP and WASP-HS communities interested in the intersection of generative AI and societal implications.
Spots are limited to 20 participants so make sure to fill in the Expression of Interest-form to get a chance to attend. Apply here.

Organizers

Kivanç Tatar, Chalmers University of TechnologyKathlén Kohn, KTH Royal Institute of TechnologyMd Fahim Sikder, Linköping UniversityFrancis Lee, Södertörn UniversityBodil Formark, Södertörn University

Workshop: Theorizing AI and Society in the Nordics
2026-09-28 - 2026-09-30 | Sandhamn, Stockholm, Sandhamn, 130 39 Sandön, Stockholm, Sweden
Artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere: in welfare offices and hospital wards, scientific laboratories and school classrooms, customer service chatbots and administrative documentation systems. Hardly a day goes by without new claims being made about AI’s transformative or disruptive powers, accompanied by promises of efficiency, insight, and radical institutional change. In this workshop, we want to examine the hype, practices, and politics of “AI” in the context of Nordic societies.
With highly digitalized societies and citizens, digital public sectors, extensive population registers, and long traditions of automation and data-driven governance, Nordic societies have lived with digital and automated systems for decades. Yet AI appears to extend these dynamics by entering the communicative and epistemic core of institutions: analyzing, classifying, writing, advising, summarizing, and interacting across knowledge making practices, from the lab to the welfare office. Following this, we would like to discuss how AI systems reshape knowledge practices and institutions, and what the implications might be for how we theorize AI in society.
Workshop themes
New objects of knowledgeEmerging AI infrastructures do not only detect patterns in data. They also produce new objects of knowledge and intervention through texts, summaries, explanations, simulations, and other outputs. In scientific and institutional settings, these systems can shape the very objects and descriptions through which the world is understood. This raises broader questions about what AI brings into being in data-intensive Nordic societies.
Classification and valuationWhen computational systems enter knowledge-making and institutional practice, the boundaries of categories begin to shift. People, groups, and objects may be ranked, scored, grouped, and made visible in new ways, creating new hierarchies and forms of valuation. By producing classifications, recommendations, summaries, and evaluations in natural language, these systems may further stabilize and intensify such processes. The workshop therefore asks how AI reshapes both what is classified and valued, and how this is done.
Knowledge practices and institutionsAs AI becomes embedded across organizations and institutions, it changes how knowledge is produced, validated, and circulated. Systems that analyze data, draft reports, respond to citizens, or assist professional reasoning affect how expertise is organized and articulated in practice. In this way, AI enters the communicative and epistemic core of institutions rather than remaining a peripheral technical tool. This opens up broader questions about how societies come to know themselves and the world through computational infrastructures.
Workshop focus
Drawing on Science and Technology Studies and Organization Studies, this workshop brings together researchers across the Nordic countries to examine what predictive and generative AI are actually doing to institutions, knowledge practices, professional work, state–citizen relations, and collective futures. We are particularly interested in empirically grounded work dealing with knowledge making practices in diverse domains. Empirical examples may include policing, welfare services, healthcare, education, and science. Rather than treating AI as a stable or finished technological object, the workshop asks how these systems are enacted in practice and what this implies for how we can theorize AI in society.
Organizers
Prof. Francis Lee, Södertorn UniversityProf. Helene Friis Ratner, Technical University of Denmark
Funded by WASH-SH, Algorithms, Data & Democracy Project (ADD) – VELUX Foundations.

WASP-HS & DDLS: Interdisciplinary Workshop
2026-10-12 - 2026-10-14 | Sigtunastiftelsen, Manfred Björkquists allé 4, Sigtuna, 193 31
Content is protected.

AI for Humanity and Society 2026
2026-11-10 12:00 - 2026-11-11 12:15 (Europe/Stockholm)
About

Keynotes

Program

Registration

More

Robots and Autonomous Systems in Everyday Life

How can we live amidst and with robots? How do they impact human work and our understanding of social relationships and societal values? Complex organizational work is needed to make robot fleets run smoothly and bring forward societal concerns about care, safety and responsibility. Join the WASP-HS conference AI for Humanity and Society 2026 themed “Robots and Autonomous Systems in Everyday Life”.
Robots and autonomous systems have left the laboratories and are now entering homes, schools, hospitals and public spaces. They are becoming part of everyday life. Being a material and mobile manifestation of artificial intelligence, robots raise new questions about autonomy and agency in relationships with individuals.
This year’s conference, Robots and Autonomous Systems in Everyday Life, will explore how individuals, organizations, and societies are impacted when robots enter our daily life, shedding light on how humans work to make autonomous systems at home in the world. WASP-HS welcomes researchers, industry leaders, policymakers, and civil society to come together to make sense of emerging developments and to discuss agendas for humane futures with autonomous systems and AI. Through panels, keynotes and an interactive reception, we will engage with topics such as coordination and interaction with robots as a form of embodied AI, robots in education, regulatory and policy issues related to autonomous systems, as well as the roles robots and autonomous systems may play in care and crisis.
The WASP-HS AI for Humanity and Society 2026 conference fosters human-centered perspectives on robots and autonomous systems, offering a space to examine emerging challenges and to jointly imagine possible futures — where robots and autonomous systems can foster human relationships, contribute to inclusive public spaces, and stimulate meaningful work. We warmly welcome you to join us in Linköping at Mjärdevi Science Park (Teknikringen 7) on November 10–11, 2026.

Keynotes

Steve Benford

Dunford Professor of Computer Science, University of Nottingham And UKRI Turing AI World Leading Research Fellow

Janet Vertesi

Associate Professor, Princeton University and Associate Director of the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education

Preliminary Conference Program

Tuesday, November 10
12:00 Registration opens
13:00–13:15 Welcome and introduction
13:15–14:00 Panel 1: Coordinating Human and Robot BodiesModerator: Valentina Fantasia, Lund University
Oskar Lindwall, University of GothenburgJuliene Madureira Ferreira, Tampere University Madeline Balaam, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
14:15–15:00 Panel 2: Educational Robots and AIModerator: Ali Reza Majlesi, Karolinska Institutet
Ginevra Castellano, Uppsala UniversityLinnéa Stenliden, Linköping UniversitySofia Serholt, University of Gothenburg
15:00–15:30 Coffee Break
15:30–16:15 Opening Keynote: Steve Benford
16:30–18:30 Interactive Reception

Wednesday, November 11
08:30 Registration opens
09:00–9:15 Welcome and Opening
09:15–10:00 Panel 3: Policy and Regulation of RobotsModerator: Stefan Larsson, Lund University
Cilli Sobiech, Swedish National Road and Transport Research InstituteBarry Brown, University of Copenhagen & Stockholm UniversityEduard Fosch-Villaronga, Leiden UniversityMartin Ebers, WASP-HS Guest Professor, Örebro University
10:00–10:15 Coffee Break
10:30–11.15 Panel 4: Robots and AI in Care and CrisisModerator: Helena Lindgren, Co-Director of WASP-HS, Umeå University
11:15-12:00 Closing Keynote: Janet Vertesi
12:00-12:15 Closing and announcement of 2027 conference

Registration
Registration opens September 8.

Conference Chairs

Hannah Pelikan

Assistant Professor at Linköping University and a Pro Futura Scientia Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.

Airi Lampinen

Associate Professor in Human–Computer Interaction at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University.
