In 2026, our annual Udo Keller Forum Humanum events will focus on the themes of dualism and non-duality – and on the ways in which the traditional oppositions structuring Western thought may no longer suffice to comprehend our entanglement with intelligent machines. Are the dualisms that underlie both classical and contemporary AI research – such as mind versus matter, code versus language, or artificial versus natural intelligence – still productive for understanding today’s world? Or do they conceal more than they reveal?

In Kyōto, we will focus on non-duality as a philosophical, cultural, and ethical orientation. How can we think AI without resorting to substantial dualisms? What can be learned from Japanese and broader Asian traditions of thought – Kyoto School philosophy, Buddhist epistemologies, Daoist ontologies, and process-relational metaphysics such as the recent We-Turn – that view reality as fundamentally interconnected and dynamic rather than as composed of separable entities? This leg of our programme is geared to approaches that engage with non-dual or relational approaches to AI and cognition.

In New York, the focus will shift toward dualism and the enduring philosophical importance of differentiation, separation, and embodiment. The humanities have long been concerned with the specificity of human existence, arguing for and explicating the irreducibility of consciousness, intentionality, and meaning. Against current tendencies to ascribe autonomy or mental capacities to AI systems, we will revisit the philosophical grounds for distinguishing between artificial and actual intelligence. This event invites approaches that critically defend, refine, or transform dualistic frameworks