9/6/2025
MindFest 2025
Center for the Future of AI, Mind & Society Hosts Third Annual Conference
Florida Atlantic’s Center for the Future of AI, Mind & Society navigates the future of artificial intelligence (AI) — a technical issue with profound cultural, intellectual and economic implications.
With a team of world-renowned experts, strong media presence and an extensive AI lab, the center serves as a hub for education and interdisciplinary research focused on understanding the societal impacts of future technology-driven changes.
One way it pursues this mission is through MindFest, a flagship event led by Susan Schneider, Ph.D., director of the center. This annual conference brings together leading thinkers, researchers and academics to explore pressing philosophical and scientific questions.
Considering the progressively autonomous capabilities of emerging technologies, the third and most recent installment, MindFest 2025, aimed to identify key trajectories for the future of human–AI interaction. It examined the rise of large language model (LLM)–based agents, as well as the nature of sentience and consciousness in both biological and, potentially, artificial systems.
“What made this year’s MindFest truly special was our collaboration with the PBS television series Closer to Truth,” Schneider said. “This partnership helped amplify the voices of our distinguished keynote speakers, including Tam Hunt, Jonathan Schooler, Zoltan Istvan and several others. The thought-provoking ideas they raised were then enriched by parallel paper sessions and student poster presentations, thereby fostering academic exchange across disciplines and career stages.”
As these questions grow increasingly urgent, MindFest 2026 will continue to explore them, inviting innovators from around the world to reimagine what is possible in the age of AI.
“Together, we create a global platform for critical discourse, offering valuable insights into our shared future across multiple channels,” Schneider said.
Watch MindFest on Closer to Truth
For more information, email dorcommunications@fau.edu to connect with the Research Communication team.
From left: Robert Lawrence Kuhn (Host, Closer To Truth) and Jonathan Schooler (Professor, UC Santa Barbara) discuss the psychology of AI on Closer To Truth.
From right: Erik Engeberg (Professor, Florida Atlantic University) introduces keynote speaker Tam Hunt (META Lab, UC Santa Barbara).
From left: Book Salon featuring Mark Bailey’s (Professor, National Intelligence University) new release, Unknowable Minds, moderated by Susan Schneider (Center Director; Professor, Florida Atlantic University) with panelists Julia Mossbridge (Founder, Mossbridge Institute) and Kevin Fraizer (Fellow, University of Texas School of Law).