Event

Public debate about artificial intelligence (AI) is often event-driven, focusing on acute crises and spectacular technological breakthroughs. AI technology is already shaping politics, security and society, yet many fundamental questions about it go unaddressed.  

What do we want from AI, where we are heading, and how can we get to where we want to be? And last, but not least: how does the development of AI affect international security, cooperation, ethics and democracy? 

The NUPI Lecture on International Affairs is a new annual flagship event that prioritises scholarly depth and makes room for complexity and disagreement. Held in English, it brings together internationally recognised researchers and academics to address topics of importance for international affairs. 

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The NUPI Lecture on International Affairs 2026 aims to take a step back and make room for more complexity and nuance than conversations about AI usually allow. We will get a lecture from this years' key note speaker, Professor Paolo Benanti, followed by a conversation with Professor Orit Halpern from Dresden University of Technology, chaired by NUPI. 

The keynote speaker is Paolo Benanti, Professor of Moral Philosophy and Ethics of Technology at LUISS in Rome and at Seattle University. He coined the term "algorethics", the idea that AI needs ethical frameworks for where the technology is taking society, not just technical standards. Benanti has a background in computer engineering, served as AI adviser to Pope Francis, and works closely with Pope Leo. A Franciscan friar, he was a member of the UN Secretary-General's High-level Advisory Body on AI. He also chaired a commission appointed by the Italian government to examine the implications of AI for media, publishing and information. 

Orit Halpern holds the Chair of Digital Cultures at Technische Universität Dresden. A historian of science and media scholar, she works on AI, design, politics and the future of knowledge production. In The Smartness Mandate, she traces the origins of our current obsession with "smart" technologies and artificial intelligence. Her first book, Beautiful Data, explores the history of big data, design and governmentality. Halpern holds a PhD from Harvard and has been a visiting scholar at institutions including the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and Duke University. She is currently writing a history of automated decision-making and changing ideas of freedom.

The event is held on 17 November, 14:00-16:00 in the University Aula, Karl Johans gt. 47, 0162 Oslo. We will also live stream the event to NUPI’s YouTube channel. No registration needed for digital participation. 

More details will follow.