“Can AI Systems Be Persons?”

With Anne Foerst, PhD

March 21, 2023

Online at 7pm ET

View the flyer.

Register here.

Humans have the tendency to treat anything that interacts with them as a person and we have the universal tendency to anthropomorphize. At the same time though, we are willing to treat humans as non-persons for which each genocide or war is an example. The new crop of Artificial Intelligences falls right into this tension. I will discuss some robot projects as well as the newest chatbots to explore if we could assign personhood to these results of human ingenuity based on the theological concept of the Imago Dei.

Dr. Anne Foerst has a Ph.D. in theology but works as Professor for Computer Science at St. Bonaventure University. Her research interests lie in the personhood of robots and computer and cybersecurity ethics. Her latest book “Cybersecurity and Hacking Ethics” was just published by Kendall-Hunt.