The International Center for Consciousness Studies (ICCS) was founded in 2024 by Dmitry Volkov, Pietro Perconti, and Alessio Plebe, in collaboration with the University of Messina. It is a non-profit cultural association dedicated to advancing philosophical research on consciousness and artificial intelligence.
The Center’s principal field of research is the philosophy of mind, with its 2026–2028 main Research Project focusing on the metaphysics and moral philosophy of AI. A central theme of the Project is relational AI: artificial systems that enter into, sustain, or meaningfully shape ongoing social relationships with human beings.
ICCS supports sustained international collaboration through seminars, workshops, conferences, and academic and public-facing publications. These activities form a continuing Research Project in which discussions and publications shape subsequent work. The Center also promotes dialogue with companies developing or deploying AI systems to identify philosophical problems arising in practice and communicate relevant arguments and findings, while retaining full intellectual independence.
