Abstract:
Researchers are increasingly modelling artificial intelligence on biological brains, while the public is increasingly relating to AIs as if they were persons—“parasocial” was recently named word of the year. Together, these trends generate serious ethical concerns. Biologically inspired AI and so-called “organoid intelligence” invite the claim that minds are nothing more than sophisticated machines, eroding the intuitive boundary between persons and objects. Yet that boundary underwrites our ideas of human dignity, human rights, and the prohibition on treating people as mere objects. In this talk, I draw on the neuroscience of human reasoning to explain why our brains are so prone to confusion about what is human and what is machine. As that confusion deepens, what is most likely to go wrong first: the belief that brain organoids are conscious subjects, or the doubt that human beings have moral value?
Biography:
Dr. Anthony “Tony” Jack is the Beamer-Schneider Professor in Ethics at Case Western Reserve University. His interdisciplinary research explores the neural basis of empathy and analytic thought and its implications. Dr Jack has a BSc in Psychology and Philosophy from Oxford University. His PhD in Experimental Psychology from University College London focused on consciousness. He trained in human brain imaging through postdocs at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, London and the Dept. of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis Medical School. Since 2007, Dr. Jack has been leading the Brain, Mind and Consciousness lab at Case Western Reserve University. Dr Jack’s primary appointment is now in Philosophy, with secondary appointments in Psychology, Neurology, Neuroscience & Organizational Behavior.