Symposium on Values & Preferences in Reasoning

At The Conference for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB)
 http://www.aisb.org.uk/

At the University of Sussex, UK, 1 to 2 July 2026

OVERVIEW:

AI Agents increasingly have more autonomy and become more proactive. The reasoning of these agents should take into consideration values and norms, and they should be able to adapt their reasoning to different situations and contexts.

Values—typically moral values—can be used to inform the reasoning and behaviour of AI agents, where the reasoning and behaviour related to the values of an agent or between agents and organisations. Recent advancements in reasoning with values have seen the use of various frameworks that, in principle, aim to describe how values can be used to inform reasoning towards a conclusion or a behaviour towards a goal.

In this symposium, we’re interested in how these frameworks operate, and how they can contribute to the reasoning and behaviour of AI agents using ethical/moral/or deontological values. More specifically, we’re interested in the definition, representation, relationships, and reasoning with three fundamental concepts: values; preferences; and goals. Values are taken to be ‘abstract principles that guide behaviour’—such as equality, autonomy, fairness; preferences are taken to be mechanisms to determine which from amongst choices is ‘more important’ than others; and goals describe a ‘state-of-affairs’ that is desirable for an agent.

However, the questions arise:

Why have both values and preferences rather than one or the other?

What are the relationships between values and preferences to goals?

TOPICS OF INTEREST (Non-exclusive)

The formal representation of values, preferences, and goals

The relationships between values, preferences, and goals, e.g., between values and preferences or values/preferences and goals

The similarities or differences between values and preferences

Argument, reasoning, or decision making when values or preferences are in conflict

Alignment and misalignment of values/preferences between agents/organisations

Changes in values and preferences in context to enable dynamic and reactive reasoning

Software and programming libraries for the development of value-based or preference-based agents

Open-source datasets or simulations to allow for the comparison of different methodologies

Applications of value-based or preference-based reasoning

SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION DETAILS

Submissions must be extended abstracts (1500-2000 words) and should be sent following the submission instructions at: https://www.vprsymposium.com/call-for-papers. Templates for papers can also be found on the above Call for Papers webpage.

Each abstract will receive at least two reviews. Authors of accepted abstracts will be asked to submit a complete, camera-ready paper. The papers are limited to 10 pages including references.

Abstracts of the accepted papers will be published in the general proceedings of the AISB Conference, and the full paper proceedings will be submitted to CEUR-WS.org for publication, with the proviso that at least ONE author attends the symposium, in person, in order to present the paper and participate in general symposium activities.

IMPORTANT DATES

Extended abstract submission deadline: 17th February 2026 


Notification of acceptance/rejection decisions: 17th March 2026


Final versions of accepted papers (Camera ready copy): 28th April 2026


Conference: 1 to 2 July 2026 [confirmation of symposium dates tbc] 


SYMPOSIUM ORGANISERS:

Symposium Co-Chair: Jay Paul Morgan, Department of Computer Science, Swansea University, United Kingdom.
Email: j.p.morgan@swansea.ac.uk 

webpage: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/j.p.morgan/


Symposium Co-Chair: Adam Wyner, Department of Computer Science, Swansea University, United Kingdom.
Email: a.z.wyner@swansea.ac.uk
webpage: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/a.z.wyner/


SYMPOSIUM WEBSITE: https://www.vprsymposium.com/

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:

Joaquin Arias, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain.

Guido Governatori, Central Queensland University, Australia.

Sascha Ossowski, University Rey Juan Carlos, Spain.

Julian Padget, University of Bath, United Kingdom.

Tomasz Zurek, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Dave de Jonge, Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), Spain.

Carles Sierra, Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), Spain.

Christoph Benzmüller, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany.

Nardine Osman, Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA-CSIC), Spain.

Xavier Parent, TU Wien, Austria.

Joe Collenette, University of Chester, United Kingdom.

Ray Limarga, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.

Katie Atkinson, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Stella Heras, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain.