UNESCO World Philosophy Day 2018: Prof. John-Stewart Gordon 'AI and Ethics: Artificial Moral and Legal Personhood'

Thursday, November 15, 2018 - 18:00
Renehan Hall, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth

Abstract:
The significant technological developments in the context of AI, robotics, and computer sciences etc. in recent years and the great potential of AI with respect to its many fields of applications call for a re-evaluation of the moral status of artificial beings i.e. intelligent robots that are equipped with an unmatched intelligence even measured by the high standards of human beings. Before we see the advent of such intelligent robots (which may still take some decades), we should evaluate their possible capabilities and determine, whether we must grant them a moral status by virtue of their “electronic personhood“. My presentation examines the moral and legal status of intelligent robots and attempts to show that, if they meet some certain (empirical) criteria, we are obliged to grant them not only moral, but also legal personhood (including full protection against any abuse or misuse etc.). In the last section, I briefly discuss the objections made in the so-called robotics open letter by a group of well-known scholars addressed to the European Commission whose members plan to “create a specific legal status for robots“.  

The talk will be foowed by a Round Table Discussion.

Participants: 
Prof. Philipp Rosemann, Department of Philosophy, MU
Dr John Cullen, School of Business, MU

Speaker:

Prof. John-Stewart Gordon is full professor of philosophy, head of the Research Cluster for Applied Ethics, and principal investigator of the research project “Future Law, Ethics, and Smart Technologies” (2017-2021) at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. He is member of the editorial boards of Bioethics (since 2007), the Baltic Journal of Law & Politics (since 2018), and he has been area-editor and board member of the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2007-2014). Furthermore, since 2016, he is general editor of the new book series Philosophy and Human Rights at Brill. He has written and edited several books in the context of practical philosophy and published peer-reviewed articles and special issues at international leading journals and encyclopaedias.

Round Table Participants:
Prof. Philipp Rosemann assumed the Chair of Philosophy at Maynooth in January 2018, after teaching at the University of Dallas for twenty years. He was trained as a medievalist, obtaining a Master's degree from Queen's in Belfast and a licentiate and Ph.D. from Louvain. He is known for his work on the famous twelfth-century scholastic Peter Lombard. His main interests are in the philosophy of history and the philosophy of religion. His most recent book carries the title, Charred Root of Meaning: Continuity, Transgression, and the Other in Christian Tradition (Eerdmans, 2018). It is an attempt to capture the essential forces that have shaped the Christian tradition in its historical unfolding.

Dr John Cullen lectures in business ethics, sustainable business and responsible management in Maynooth University School of Business.  His research and teaching is mainly in the fields of Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability and Responsible Management Learning. His interest in the potential of psychoanalytic theory to help managers and organisations address social and ethical issues is reflected in his most recent book Work, Ethics & Organisational Life (2nd Edition, 2018). 
Prior to his academic career, he worked as a manager, a researcher, a Press & Information Officer, a project manager and a librarian. A library and information professional by training and experience, he spent the early stages of his working life in information rich environments which led to a longstanding interest in how information technology changes how we think and ethically reason at work. His research has been published in the Journal of Information Science, Human Relations, Work, Employment & Society and the Journal of Business Ethics amongst others, and he is a research supervisor on the Industry 4.0 project which is funded by the CONFIRM centre.