kAI-evening: “Artificial Intelligence as an Epistemic Toy”

• Date: 14 October 2026
• Time: 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM (doors open at 5:00 PM, with networking from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM)
• Location: Kirkegata 24, KAU-B1-02

kAI evenings are organized by Kristianias AI-center (kAI) and the lecture will be held in English.

The event is free and open to everyone, but registration is required:

Register here

Programme

• 5:00 PM: Doors open. Coffee and fruit will be served.
• 5:30 PM: Introduction to the Kristiania AI Centre (KAI) by Professor and Associate Dean Synne T. Bull, Deputy Director of KAI, followed by an introduction of the speaker, Wolfgang Ernst, by Eivind Røssaak, Researcher I at the National Library of Norway.
• 5:35 PM: “Artificial Intelligence as an Epistemic Toy” – lecture by Professor, author, and media theorist Wolfgang Ernst, followed by a Q&A session.
• 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM: Networking and light refreshments. An opportunity to continue the conversation and connect with fellow participants from a range of disciplines.

Abouth the lecture

For this month's kAI-evening, we have invited Wolfgang Ernst, professor, author, and media theorist, to give a different kind of lecture on artificial intelligence. 

Rather than focusing on how AI is reshaping society, the workplace, or education, Ernst turns our attention to the technology itself: How does it work, and what can it teach us? 

Drawing on media archaeology and the philosophy of knowledge, Ernst explores how AI can shed new light on questions that have occupied philosophers for centuries: What is the relationship between thought and matter? How does information become knowledge? And what does it really mean to be intelligent? 

By examining both the algorithms and the physical infrastructure that make AI possible, Ernst shows how artificial intelligence can function as an “epistemic toy” – something we can experiment with to investigate fundamental questions about technology, knowledge, and human thought. 

The lecture will be introduced by Eivind Røssaak, Research Professor at the National Library of Norway, member of the Advisory Board of the Kristiania AI Centre (KAI), and member of the AI Ecologies research group. 

Read the abstract here.