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We are excited to announce the preliminary programme for the 14th annual We Robot Conference to be held on April 24 and 25, 2026, with a pre-conference workshop on April 23, 2026. The final conference programme will be available on March 19, 2026, following the final paper submission deadline. Click here to get your ticket.

Pre-Conference Workshop – 23rd April 2026 (Thursday)

09.00-12.00 | Morning session: Get ready to roll up your sleeves! Workshop activities will dive deep into the conference’s themes (agentic AI, robot ethics, and beyond).
Location: Wikimedia Deutschland, Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24, 10963 Berlin

14.00-18.00 | Afternoon session: Diving into the future at the House of Robotics, where cutting-edge research is rewriting what machines can do.
Location: House of Robotics, Kurfürstenstraße 141, 10785 Berlin

Download the program of the workshop activities!

Main Conference – 24th and 25th April 2026 (Friday & Saturday)

Location: buM – Place for Solidarity,Paul-Lincke-Ufer 21, 10999 Berlin

Across two enriching days, the conference programme is structured around individual paper presentations and panel discussions, designed to facilitate meaningful dialogue and foster engagement across disciplinary boundaries. And because the best conversations don’t always happen in the conference room, join us for the conference dinner on the 24th where the energy, ideas, and good company keep flowing long into the evening. 

1 Day – 24th April 2026

09:00-09:30 | Welcome 

09:30-10:30 | Paper Session 

• From Limited Risk to Prohibited Use: Mapping the EU AI Act’s Risk Framework onto Robotic Public Safety Systems
  Author: Irmak Erdogan (KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law)

Discussant: Hannah Ruschemeier (University of Osnabrueck)

10:30-11:00 | Break 

11:00-13:00 | Panel: Building Systems That Last: Law, Technology, and Long-Term Thinking

• The Charge of Green Robots: From Environmental Robot Ethics to an Environmental Rule of Law for Robotics
  Authors: Jacopo Ciani, Ugo Pagallo, Massimo Durante and Ludovica Paseri (Department of Law, University of Turin)

• When Right to Repair Meets AI: Reinterpreting the Right to Repair through Individuation
  Author: Ryota Akasaka (The University of Osaka)

• Robotic Imposters with Human Helpers: An anthropologically informed study of sociotechnical imaginaries around social robots in staged and unstaged settings in Japan
  Authors: Elsa Concas (Stockholm University), Laetitia Tanqueray (Department of Technology and Society, Lund University) and Stefan Larsson (Department of Technology and Society, Lund University)

Discussant: Helena Webb (University of Nottingham)

13:00-14:00 | Lunch

14:00-15:00 | Paper Session 

• The New Three Laws of Robotics: Field-Derived Ethics for Human-Robot Coexistence

  Authors: Tomomi Ota (Shiga University) and Rikiya Yamamoto (Robot Friendly Project)

Discussant: AJung Moon (McGill University)

15:00-15:30 | Break 

15:30-17:30 | Panel: Reimagining Accountability: Who Answers When Systems Fail?

• Intention, But Hybrid: A New Test for Posthuman Agents
  Author: Janko Munjić (Appellate Court in Kragujevac; Faculty of Law, University of Kragujevac

• AI Risk Bonds: A Market-Based Mechanism for Governing Liability
  Authors: Gleb Papyshev (Lingnan University), Sara Migliorini (University of Macau) and Keith Jin Deng Chan (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

• Curated Information Frameworks: Contextual Transparency and Governance for Dynamic AI
  Author: Emily LaRosa (Michigan State University)

Discussant: Stanisław Tosza (University of Luxembourg)

2 Day – 25th April 2026

09:30-10:30 | Paper Session 

• Rethinking Robot Ownership: Comparing Public, Corporate, and Private Ownership Models.
  Authors: Isaac Sheidlower, Tomo Lazovich, Harini Suresh, and Serena Booth (Brown University)

Discussant: Ryan Calo (University of Washington)

10:30-11:00 | Break 

11:00-13:00 | Panel: AI Safety and assurance: Technological foundations, standards and audits

• Shadows Work & Protocols: A Contingent Case for Negligence in Agentic AI

  Authors: Veronica Paternolli (University of Verona) and Ryan Calo (University of Washington)

• Revealing AI’s Latent Rulebook
  Authors: David Atkinson (Georgetown) and Paul Ohm (Georgetown Law)

• A Scoping Review of System Integration Audits: Towards a New Class of Artificial Intelligence Evaluation
  Authors: Leah Davis (McGill University), Ajung Moon (McGill University) and Dominic Martin (Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM))

Discussant: Woodrow Hartzog (Boston University)

13:00-14:00 | Lunch

14:00-15:00 | Paper Session 

• From Rejection to Regulation: Mapping the Landscape of AI Resistance
  Authors: Ayse Gizem Yasar (École normale supérieure Paris) and Can Simsek (Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society)

Discussant: Vance Ricks (Northeastern University)

15:00-15:30 | Break 

15:30-17:30 | Panel: Deep Fakes and Deeper Problems: AI’s Problem with Nuances

• LLMs and the Collapse of Legal Indeterminacy

  Author: Shira Gur-Arieh (Harvard Law School)

• How Much Is My Voice Worth to an Algorithm? Synthetic Voices, Embodied Agents, and the Right to Freedom from Vocal Identity Confusion
  Author: Maddalena Castellani (Attorney-at-law and Independent Researcher)

Discussant: Neil Richards (Washington University in St. Louis)

We are delighted to announce that registration for We Robot 2026 in Berlin is open now.

You can get register and get your ticket here on PreTix!

We will foresee opportunities for interested students or professionals who cannot afford the participation fee – such as volunteering options or waivers. Contact us!