"Do Robots Have Souls? Race, Religion, and the Rise of Intelligent Machines"

The Department of African American Studies and the College of LAS invite you to attend the Victor Cullin Memorial Lecture, taking place on Monday, October 5, 2026, at 4:00pm in the Alice Campbell Alumni Center (reception to follow). Dr. Sylvester A. Johnson, Professor and Chair of Black Studies at Northwestern University, will give a talk entitled “Do Robots Have Souls? Race, Religion, and the Rise of Intelligent Machines.” This event is free and open to the public. 

Abstract: The twelfth century "father of secularism" Ibn Rush'd, the sage of Andalusia, explored intelligence as a special power of the soul, advancing that the intellect could neither consist of material nor reside in material. In the twenty-first century, as Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes an increasing part of our technological society, it seems that Ibn Rush'd 's Aristotelian claim is in sync with popular opinion. However, a global purview on traditions about souls, spirit, and matter, should caution us against any easy assumptions about the subject. Mustafa Suleyman of Microsoft has urged that society resist claims about seemingly conscious AI, while at least one major AI company has cautioned that modern society be willing to entertain the possibility that AI might have the functional equivalent of emotions and self-awareness. How is AI changing our understanding of human identity? And what can studying race and religion tell us about minds and machines? In this talk, Sylvester Johnson examines the intersection of religion, race, and technology to propose a novel approach to understanding the religious and political implications of AI.