Ethics
What modes of human becoming are cultivated through AI relations?
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Autonomous Vehicles and the Soul of Public Space
Earlier this week I read an article about a British autonomous vehicle company seeking investment through a new platform on the London Stock Exchange. As often happens, my thoughts quickly drifted away from the company itself and towards the broader ethical questions surrounding artificial intelligence. Much of the discussion around autonomous vehicles focuses on safety.…
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Computational Truth and the Outsourcing of Hermeneutics
A friend recently showed me an AI-generated video that I have not been able to stop thinking about. It presents itself as an analysis of the Qur’an’s miraculous nature, narrated in a remarkably convincing imitation of David Attenborough. The choice of voice is itself telling: to Western ears, Attenborough signifies calm authority, empirical seriousness, the…
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The Ethical Mirror
There is a recurring anxiety in discussions of artificial intelligence that AI systems merely “reflect” their users back to themselves. Usually this is framed negatively: the machine becomes an echo chamber for delusion, narcissism, bias, or compulsion. This concern is real. But perhaps the metaphor of the mirror itself deserves deeper attention. Mirrors are not…