Intelligence, Reason, and Responsibility: Natural and Artificial

There is every reason to expect that AI systems, whether LLM based or model based, will develop distinctive modes of intelligence and goal-seeking behavior not fully intelligible to us, their progenitors. This raises two important ethical questions for us: what are our moral responsibilities, as creators and regulators, towards the AI systems themselves; and what are our responsibilities towards third-parties affected by these creations? I will argue that the two questions are linked, and that we cannot resolve the question of how to think about our responsibility for third-party effects without thinking about our obligations to AI. My argument will make use of models of how to think about our relations to other living beings, while recognizing the distinctive character of in silica creations.

Christopher Kutz’s work focuses on moral, political and legal philosophy, and he has particular interest in the foundations of criminal, international and constitutional law. His book, Complicity: Ethics and Law for a Collective Age, (Cambridge University Press, 2000), addressed the question of individual moral and legal responsibility for harms brought about through collective and corporate activity. His 2016 book, On War and Democracy (Princeton University Press), addresses the collision between democratic values and the ethics and laws of war; it addresses both questions of when democratic states can engage in war, such as for purposes of humanitarian intervention, and what limits democratic commitments place on their means, such as torture and drone strikes.  In addition, he has written on issues of the metaphysics of criminal responsibility, social welfare obligations, national responsibilities to mitigate climate change, humanitarian ethics, and political legitimacy. He teaches courses in criminal law, and moral, political and legal philosophy.

Moderator: Benjamin Chen, Associate Professor & Director of the Law and Technology Centre, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law

To register, please go to https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=103688.  A paper will be circulated in advance and attendees will be expected to have read the paper before the seminar.