HumAIn: Being Human in the Age of AI

Prof. Sylvester Johnson presents:

Do Robots Have Souls?

This conversation is part of the Kaplan Humanities Institute's new initiative HumAIn: Being Human in the Age of AI. It is also a keynote of Kaplan's Critical Conversations in the Humanities. 

Sylvester Johnson is Professor of Black Studies at Northwestern. As a scholar of race, religion, and technology, he works at the intersection of technical and humanistic stakeholders to advance more democratic, inclusive outcomes for an innovation-driven society. Johnson leads the Future Humans, Human Futures project, which has been supported by the Henry Luce Foundation. This project engages the current and emerging challenges for ethical governance of technology by working across multiple societal sectors to cultivate socio-technical knowledge and skills. His forthcoming book examines classic questions about the difference (or not) between people and things within the context of computing and biotech—specifically new developments in artificial intelligence. Can a machine actually know anything? How does our material nature constitute our humanity? Our personhood? And what political consequences will result as people are increasingly combined with machines (e.g., for medical therapies)? 

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