Announcing....Professor Luciano Floridi

Professor Luciano Floridi is considered one of the world's leading experts on the ways in which digital technologies are changing the way we live and is the only ethicist on Google's advisory panel on the right to be forgotten.  He is Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, Director of Research and Senior Research Fellow of the Oxford Internet Institute, Governing Body Fellow of St Cross College, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Research Associate and Fellow in Information Policy of the Department of Computer Science and, beyond Oxford, Adjunct Professor of the Department of Economics, American University.  Professor Floridi's research interests include Philosophy of Information, Information and Computer Ethics and the Philosophy of Technology.  His most recent books include: The Fourth Revolution - How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Realiity ; The Ethics of Information ; The Philosophy of Information and Information - A Very Short Introduction.

Professor Floridi will be joining us live from Oxford University via Skype.

Professor Floridi's website

Professor Floridi - The Philosopher's Zone

The Fourth Revolution - Professor Floridi on Philosophy Bites

Professor Floridi's presentation will be on:

Are We Really Special? AI’s New Challenges to Human Exceptionalism

 In this talk, I shall discuss some consequences of our increasing success in engineering smart, autonomous, and social agents (AI), as well as predictive tools that can anticipate and manipulate human decisions and choices. I shall argue that AI does not lead to any fanciful realization of science fiction scenarios (Singularity), which are at best distracting and at worst irresponsible; that human intelligent behaviour is confronted by artificial smart behaviour, which can be adaptively more successful in the infosphere; that human free behaviour is confronted by its predictability and manipulability by AI, and by the development of artificial autonomy; and that human sociable behaviour is confronted by its artificial counterpart, which can be both attractive for humans and indistinguishable by them. In the conclusion, I shall suggest that all this invites us to reflect more seriously and less complacently about who we are, could be, and would like to become, and therefore about our self-understanding and our responsibilities towards the world and each other.