Title: Beyond Technocentrism: Kant's Humanism and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
Abstract: This paper develops a Kantian critique of AI’s epistemic authority by contrasting the instrumental logic of artificial intelligence with the teleological character of human intelligence. The latter, on the Kantian view I develop, is not reducible to cognitive goal optimization but rather involves the self-legislated pursuit of understanding, itself the crucible of human moral development. By outsourcing ever larger quantities of cognitive labor to AI systems, I argue, we risk confusing ourselves about the distinctive nature and value of human intelligence, while at the same time undermining the formative practices through which humans have historically acquired both knowledge and virtue. Against the prevailing technocratic enthusiasm, this paper defends an ethics of learning rooted in Kantian humanism, arguing that human emancipation depends on preserving the integrity of human intelligence in the face of our ever-growing dependence on and fascination with AI.