About this Special Issue
Humans, Minds, and Brains | a CAI Workshop
by Todd Essig, PhD
The issue that follows started as a panel titled “Are Artificial Intelligence and Natural Stupidity a False Dichotomy or an Inevitable Choice?” which Amy Levy, PsyD, Fred Gioia, MD, and I presented on May 31, 2025 at the “Irreverence and Psychoanalysis” conference produced by the William Alanson White Institute. As you’ll see, the three of us prepared both a short paper and a short response to the papers of the other two.
But that was just the start. After the conference, we uploaded our papers and responses to ChatGPT instructing it to be in the role of an early career professional facing an AI transformed future. This AI-generated discussion was then included when we shared our work at an online CAI Workshop, “Humans, Minds, and Brains: A Trialogue at the Edge of AI Possibility,” in July.
And there’s more. Two of the conference organizers, Jean Petrucelli and Sarah Schoen (and who are also co-editors of a book comprised of the conference proceedings titled Psychoanalysis and Irreverence, forthcoming from Routledge), graciously agreed to write an introduction to this issue.
Finally, and at the risk of seeming like an intrusive waiter at a high-end tasting menu telling you how to eat the dish that was just put in front of you, we request that you read these articles in order of presentation so as to recreate in reading the experience of those who attended the original panel in May and the workshop in July.
Enjoy!
