- Dates
- 18–19 September 2025
- Place
- House of Music Hungary, Budapest, Hungary
- Role
- Speaker
- Presentation
- Anthropomorphic AI: Sociopathic AI Features as Predictors of Career Opportunities and Threats Perceived by Pilots in Commercial AviationGiacomo Belloni and Petru Lucian Curșeu
Brain Bar calls itself Europe’s largest festival on the future, and it is an unusual stage for aviation research. Every September, scientists, entrepreneurs, policymakers and thousands of students gather in Budapest to argue about where technology and society are heading. The audience is invited to question and debate with the speakers, not only to listen. The 2025 edition, the eleventh, was held on 18 and 19 September at the House of Music Hungary in City Park, with around 170 speakers and the theme of the next 25 years for humanity.
Captain Giacomo Belloni was invited as a speaker on behalf of HUMAI Research. On the morning of 18 September he presented his latest academic study, written with Prof. Petru Lucian Curșeu and published open access in The International Journal of Aerospace Psychology: Anthropomorphic AI: Sociopathic AI Features as Predictors of Career Opportunities and Threats Perceived by Pilots in Commercial Aviation.
The talk, framed as Technology & Complexity in commercial aviation, started from the growing complexity of the modern flight deck and from a simple observation. Pilots do not perceive artificial intelligence as just another tool. They tend to attribute human-like traits to it. The study looks at what happens when those traits are negative, in particular sociopathic features ascribed to AI, and how they shape the way pilots see the opportunities, the threats to their careers and the performance benefits that AI may bring into the cockpit.
It was a fantastic opportunity to meet fascinating people in an impeccable setting. Our heartfelt thanks go to the organisers and to everyone who made this experience so inspiring.