Project

Anchored within the dynamic framework of the “AI, Digital Technology, and Law” Chair at IRJI François Rabelais (University of Tours), this international and interdisciplinary symposium seeks to foster critical dialogue and innovative collaboration. Building on institutional efforts at the IUT of Tours and the Faculty of Law, Economics, and Social Sciences, it is fully aligned with the university’s research and innovation strategies.

Artificial intelligence acts as a catalyst, both accelerating and reshaping major societal transformations—globalization, the digital revolution, the evolution of social relations, and ecological transition. Rather than presenting a stand-alone technological rupture, AI serves as a point of convergence for diverse historical dynamics, generating both unprecedented opportunities and new, complex vulnerabilities—whether social, economic, democratic, or environmental.

Through a critical and comparative lens, this symposium aims to examine contemporary transitions by drawing from the perspectives of the humanities, law, economics, computer science, and education. Central issues include the transformation of work and organizational structures, the evolution of governance and regulatory frameworks, and the interplay between technological innovation, shifting collective values, and emerging legal or normative horizons.

The event will also address the diversity of trajectories: it will explore the role of human skills, institutional adaptation to the rise of automated decision-making, the renewal of democratic practices, and the emergence of new ethical and environmental issues related to AI deployment. Special attention will be given to social vulnerabilities (including precarity, aging, and minority status), the differentiated management of time (accelerations, continuities, interruptions), resistance mechanisms, and the unfolding of public controversies.

Favouring a participatory and multidisciplinary approach, the symposium endeavours to produce conceptual and methodological tools, as well as operational recommendations for institutions, socio-economic stakeholders, policymakers, and civil society. Ultimately, it seeks to enable the development of shared and adaptable solutions marked by inclusion and sustainability.

Scientific themes are structured around four main axes:

• Governance, standards, and AI regulation
• Changing nature of work and organizations
• AI, environmental transitions, and sustainability
• Social perceptions, imaginaries, and cultures of AI