2026.11.05 Registration Open
Interdisciplinary Talk #13: AI and Philosophy
Arts & Design
Intellectual Dialogue
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As generative AI becomes part of everyday life, we risk overlooking the worldviews, philosophies, and politics that shape the AI systems we use. Contemporary digital technologies are a product of Western modernity, embedding its particular forms of rationality and logic. Intelligence is often treated as singular and universal, isolated from the histories, embodied knowledge, religious traditions, rituals, environmental relationships, and communal forms of knowledge rooted in particular places.
But what if we understood AI not as one intelligence but as something generated through the interaction of multiple intelligences? And what if we introduced into AI concepts of relationality and embodiment found in Eastern thought, the Buddhist notion of continual becoming and transformation, or polytheistic worldviews that embrace multiplicity and allow space for chaos? Could such perspectives open the way to a radically different future for AI?
In this Interdisciplinary Talk on November 5, we will explore these questions from both philosophical and practical angles.
Philosopher Yuk Hui, who currently teaches at Erasmus University Rotterdam, has challenged the universal view of technology with the concept of “cosmotechnics” a decade ago. His recent trilogy on recursivity reconstructs the history of modern Western philosophy through the lens of technology and proposes an epistemological and political agenda of “technodiversity.” He also engaged with the Kyoto School philosophy to reassess the project of “overcoming modernity.” His work has attracted international attention as a critical rethinking of technology itself.
Yoichiro Miyake, meanwhile, is a game AI architect known for his work on titles such as Final Fantasy XV. He has designed games that incorporate “multiple intelligences”—AI systems governing domains such as environments, characters, and groups, each making autonomous decisions and interacting with one another. Now teaching game and interactive art at the Tokyo University of the Arts, Miyake explores how Western conceptions of AI centered on purpose, logic, and intentionality can be linked to ideas from Eastern philosophy, including relationality, embodiment, Buddhist thought, and continual generation and transformation. His work opens possibilities for a more inclusive conception of AI.
If Hui is a philosopher working at the forefront of contemporary thought, responding to the crises of the contemporary technological world with an agenda of technodiversity, Miyake is an architect who has put resonant forms of multiple intelligence into practice through world-renowned games. Their dialogue invites us to consider AI not simply as a technological innovation but as an opportunity to ask with what kinds of intelligence we wish to shape our future world.
Moving beyond a technological worldview rooted in Western modernity, this Interdisciplinary Talk challenges us to imagine a future shaped by diverse forms of intelligence at the intersection of Eastern thought, urban culture, game AI, and platform society.
Event Overview
| Date | Thursday, November 5, 2026 6:00 pm-7:30 pm (Doors open 5:30 pm) |
| Venue | Iwasaki Koyata Memorial Hall, International House of Japan |
| Speaker | Yuk HUI (Philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam) Yoichiro MIYAKE (Game AI Architect, Professor of Tokyo University of the Arts) |
| Moderator | Yuko HASEGAWA (Director of Art and Design,International House of Japan) |
| Language | Japanese and English (with interpretation) |
| Admission | 3,000 yen (IHJ Members: 2,000 yen, Students: 1,000 yen) *Member pricing is available to IHJ members and their spouses or partners. Other accompanying guests will be charged the regular admission rate. |
| Co-organized by | Ushiba Fellowship and The Research Institute for Advanced and Interdisciplinary Strategy (RAIS) |
| *Please note that our staff will be taking photographs and videos during the event. |
Speakers
Philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam
Yuk HUI
Yuk Hui is Professor of Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he holds the Chair of Human Conditions and directs the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Technology. Hui studied computer engineering at the University of Hong Kong, wrote his doctoral thesis under the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler at Goldsmiths College in London, and received his Habilitation in philosophy from the Leuphana University in Germany. He has been the convenor of the Research Network for Philosophy and Technology since 2014 and a juror of the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture since 2020, currently serving as chair of the jury.
His major publications, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages, include On the Existence of Digital Objects (University of Minnesota Press), The Question Concerning Technology in China: An Essay in Cosmotechnics (Urbanomic), Art and Cosmotechnics (University of Minnesota Press), Post-Europe (Sequence/Urbanomic), Machine and Sovereignty (University of Minnesota Press), and Kant Machine: Critical Philosophy after AI (Bloomsbury).
Yuk Hui has been a laureate of prestigious competitive research grants from Asian and European public research institutions; In 2025, ArtReview listed him among the 100 most influential figures shaping contemporary art.
Game AI Architect, Professor of Tokyo University of the Arts
Yoichiro MIYAKE
Yoichiro Miyakeis a game AI architect. He studied mathematics at Kyoto University, earned a master’s degree in physics from Osaka University, and completed the doctoral program at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo. Since 2004, he has been engaged in the research and development of artificial intelligence for digital games. He has served as Project Professor at the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo; Project Professor at the Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence and Science, Rikkyo University; Visiting Professor at Kyushu University; and Visiting Senior Researcher at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo. He founded the Japan Game AI SIG of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA Japan), serving as its chair, and serves as a board member of the Digital Games Research Association Japan, Vice Chair of the Editorial Committee and Senior Editor of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, and a steering committee member of the Game Informatics Research Group of the Information Processing Society of Japan.
He received the 2020 JSAI Paper Award for his paper Game AI General Theory and its Implementation in AAA Digital Game－A Case Study of AI System in FINAL FANTASY XV－.
His major publications include The Complete Guide to Strategy Game AI (Shoei-sha), Philosophy Academy for Artificial Intelligence, and Philosophy Academy for Artificial Intelligence: Eastern Philosophy (BNN).
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