A special theme of IJCAI-17 is Autonomy. While autonomy has been a focus of interest in the research community for many years, recent developments in the adoption of artificial intelligence and other technologies across many different areas of endeavour have brought new challenges or have made real those that until now had been largely abstract and theoretical. The increasing number of major corporations developing autonomous cars, the use of autonomous vehicles in the sea and in the air, the proliferation of drones for different purposes including military ones, and the availability of personal assistants via the desktop or smartphone are just some examples of the ways in which these challenges are facing us in everyday life. In recognition of this trend, and in support of addressing some of these challenges, this Special Track seeks to foster discussion and debate around the issues brought forward by this new generation of technologies and applications.
We seek papers that address or consider the challenges across multiple different dimensions as follows:
- Technical: What tools, techniques and and models are needed to provide effective technological support for these kinds of autonomous systems? What are the technical implications of ensuring appropriate privacy and security for digital identities in the context of autonomous systems?
- Philosophical: What do philosophical concepts of autonomy offer this emerging reality? Do norms provide a basis for managing autonomous machines?
- Legal: What kind of regulatory regime is needed for autonomous machines, and what implications are there? How might electronic contracts be used in support of this? What are the legal implications of digital identities in relation to privacy and security of user data in the context of autonomous systems?
- Social: How will the prevalence of autonomous machines change our reality? In what way does big data magnify the challenges as well as the possibilities for autonomy? What implications might there be for how people and machines interact? What are the social implications of security and privacy issues in the context of autonomous systems?
This Special Track will focus on the benefits and potential risks that Autonomy in AI can bring to our society including, but not limited to, the areas above
IMPORTANT DATES
- Abstract submission: February 16th, 2017
- Paper submission: February 19th, 2017
- Rebuttal Period: March 28-29, 2017
- Notification of acceptance/rejection: April 23, 2017
All deadlines are 11:59PM, UTC-12; thus submissions are allowed as long as the deadline date is not past anywhere in the world. Information about camera ready deadlines will be provided to authors at a later date.
SUBMISSION DETAILS
Submitted papers must be formatted according to IJCAI guidelines and submitted electronically through the IJCAI 2017 paper submission site. Full instructions including formatting guidelines and electronic templates are available on the IJCAI 2017 website. Submissions must be in electronic form using the IJCAI 2017 paper submission software linked above. Submissions must be self-contained; IJCAI will not accept or review any supplementary materials. At least one author of each accepted paper is required to attend the conference to present the work. Authors will be required to agree to this requirement at the time of submission. The paper title, author names, contact details, and a brief abstract must be submitted electronically by February 16th, 2017 (11:59 UTC-12). All papers are due electronically on February 19th, 2017 (11:59 UTC- 12). Submissions received after the deadline or that do not meet the length or formatting requirements will not be considered for review (see the paper length and format section below). No email or fax submissions will be accepted. Notification of receipt of an electronically submitted paper will be emailed to the designated contact author soon after receipt. The designated author will be notified by email about acceptance or rejection by April 23, 2017. Authors will also be able to respond to preliminary reviews during the dates March 28-29th. Guidelines for such responses, along with details of the reviewing process will be posted on the IJCAI 2017 website.
Keywords
When submitting their abstract, authors will be required to choose content area keywords. General categories should only be used if specific categories do not apply or do not accurately reflect the main contributions. The full list of keywords will be available on the submission site.
POLICY ON MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS
IJCAI 2017 will not accept any paper that, at the time of submission, is under review for, has already been published in, or has already been accepted for publication in, a journal or another venue with formally published proceedings. As a rule of thumb, authors should regard any publication with an ISBN or ISSN as a formal publication. Authors are also required not to submit their papers to venues with formal publication during IJCAI-17 review period. These restrictions are not intended to apply to workshops and similar specialized presentations with a limited audience and without published proceedings. Authors will be required to confirm that their submissions conform to these requirements at the time of submission. A multiple submission is grounds for immediate rejection of the submitted paper.
CONFIDENTIALITY POLICY
All submissions will be treated in strict confidence until the publication date.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY
All people involved in the IJCAI 2017 review process adhere to the IJCAI conflict of interest policy. Details can be found at
http://ijcai.org/.
REVIEW PROCESS
Papers will be subject to double blind peer review in which the reviewers do not know the author's identity. In order to make blind reviewing possible, authors must omit their names and affiliations from the paper. Also, while the references should include all published literature relevant to the paper, including previous works of the authors, it should not include unpublished works (papers that are accepted and are made available online by the publisher can be cited). When referring to one's own work, use the third person rather than the first person. For example, say "Previously, Foo and Bar [7] have shown that...", rather than "In our previous work [7] we have shown that...". Such identifying information can be added back to the final camera-ready version of accepted papers. Similarly, reviewers should not reveal their identities within the paper reviews.
Selection criteria include originality of ideas, correctness, clarity, significance of results and quality of presentation. IJCAI main track will have a four-tier program committee, with the program chair, area chairs, senior program committee members and program committee members.
The review process will include the opportunity for authors to see the reviews of their papers and to respond to technical questions raised by the reviewers before discussion starts within the Program Committee. The decision of the Program Committee will be final and cannot be appealed.
PAPER LENGTH AND FORMAT
Submitted technical papers must be no longer than seven pages in total: six pages for the main text of the paper (including all figures but excluding references), and one additional page for references. Note that the references page can only include references. For accepted papers, up to two additional pages may be purchased at an additional cost per page, but note that at the time of submissions, papers should adhere to the guidelines above: 6 pages for main text plus one page for references. Papers must be formatted according to posted IJCAI 2017 guidelines, which will be available on the conference website (the style will be essentially that of previous IJCAI conferences). Electronic templates for the LaTeX typesetting package, as well as a Word template, that conform to IJCAI 2017 guidelines will be made available at the conference website. Final camera ready versions will be formatted according to the publisher's instructions.
Authors are required to submit their electronic papers in PDF format. Files in Postscript (ps) or any other format will not be accepted. Over-length papers will be rejected without review. Submissions must be self-contained; IJCAI will not accept or review any supplementary material.
FAQ
For a list of frequently asked questions about IJCAI 2017 paper submission, click
here.
Enquiries
Please send all enquiries about the technical program to the IJCAI 2017 Program Chair, Prof Carles Sierra at the email address pcchair@ijcai-17.org. Please send all enquiries about the Special Track on AI & Autonomy to the IJCAI 2017 Special Track Chair, Professor Michael Luck, at the email address autonomy@ijcai-17.org.
