Thought Leader Discusses AI Issues at Newly Launched Philosophy of Science Lecture Series

The intersection of technology and ethics provided the foundation of discussion at the first-ever Arthur F. and Barbara Gianelli Lecture in the Philosophy of Science at St. John’s University on April 24.

Hosted by St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the lecture featured speaker Seth Lazar, Ph.D., Professor, School of Philosophy at Australian National University, and Principal Investigator of the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory (MINT) Laboratory, where he directs research projects on the moral and political philosophy of artificial intelligence (AI). 

Dr. Lazar addressed considerations of AI personhood—the granting of legal rights and responsibilities to AI—in a 90-minute lecture titled “On AI Personhood Without Sentience.” The lecture was followed by a question-and-answer session with St. John’s faculty and administrators; more than 50 attended the lecture at the D’Angelo Center.    

Granting personhood to AI is a complex issue with legal and ethical implications. Current AI systems are not considered sentient—defined as the capacity to have feelings—so assigning them legal rights is based on their function, similar to the personhood status granted to corporations, which are recognized as having legal rights without possessing the capacity for feelings.   

Advocates of AI personhood argue that AI systems with the ability to make independent decisions possess a level of control over their actions that warrants legal recognition, even if they do not experience feelings.

Skeptics counter by saying that if an AI system is given personhood, who would be held accountable for its actions—the system itself, its developers, or its owners? And what happens if AI systems are used for purposes that harm human interests?

“I think there are AI agents likely to be developed in the next three to five years, possibly sooner, that might require a serious revision of political theory. AI agents that meet multiple criteria for moral standards,” Dr. Lazar said. “We might be able to build artificial persons—not fictional persons—but entities that have the grounds of moral sentience. This would be big if true.”

Dr. Lazar, a sought-after speaker, was a fitting lecturer at a time when AI presents ethical questions unimagined decades ago. He is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI. He was also one of the authors of a study by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine that reported on the ethics of responsible computing research to Congress.

“We are very privileged to have him here to speak with us,” said Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy.

The newly launched lecture series pays tribute to the work of Arthur F. Gianelli, Ph.D., former Professor, Department of Philosophy, St. John’s College, who died in 2023. Dr. Gianelli’s son, Arthur, established the Barbara and Arthur Gianelli Scholarship Fund in 2020 to support financially needy students enrolled in the University Honors Program.

Throughout his career, Dr. Gianelli inspired students with his intellectual curiosity, professional and personal integrity, and faith. The lecture series continues his work by providing a forum where thought leaders can address the challenges posed to religious faith and ethical values that emerge from scientific advancement.

“St. John’s was my father’s professional home for nearly 50 years,” Arthur Gianelli said. “Throughout his life, my father grappled with the great philosophical questions that grew out of scientific discovery, and there are no greater questions than those that have arisen with the emergence of artificial intelligence.”