Dear colleagues,
Please join us for the upcoming "Critical AI Futures and Ethics Lecture" hosted by the Department of Communication Studies and the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. David Gunkel will present "Person, Thing, Robot" based on his book of the same title published by MIT Press (2023). This lecture is also co-sponsored by the Program of Health & Medical Humanities in the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences as well as the School of Data Science at UNC Charlotte. We welcome audience from a wide range of disciplines and professional backgrounds interested in the question "What exactly is a robot?" as well as related moral and legal challenges and AI ethics. Attendance is available both in person and online. Please see details below. Hope you can join us!
"Person, Thing, Robot" by Dr. David Gunkel – A Critical AI Futures and Ethics Lecture – April 8, 2025
Speaker: Dr. David Gunkel (Northern Illinois University)
Time: April 8, 2025 (Tuesday) 11:30AM-12:45PM including 20 minutes of Q&A
Place: UNC Charlotte Student Union Movie Theatre (8845 Craver Rd, Charlotte, NC 28223)
Online streaming link: https://charlotte-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/rR_UFPRETiK8mHz5irXyiQ
"Person, Thing, Robot"
Robots are a curious sort of thing. On the one hand, they are designed and manufactured technological artifacts. They are things. Yet, and on the other hand, these things are not quite like other things. They seem to have social presence. They are able to talk and interact with us. And many are designed to mimic or simulate the capabilities and behaviors that are commonly associated with human or animal intelligence. Robots therefore invite and encourage zoomorphism, anthropomorphism, and even personification. In his book Person, Thing, Robot (MIT Press, 2023), David J. Gunkel sets out to answer the vexing question: What exactly is a robot? Rather than try to fit robots and artificial intelligence into the existing moral and legal categories by way of arguing for either their reification or personification, however, Gunkel argues for a revolutionary reformulation of the entire system, developing a new approach to technology ethics that can scale to the unique opportunities and challenges of the twenty-first century and beyond.
Biography
Dr. David J. Gunkel (PhD, Philosophy, DePaul University) is Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University (USA) and Professor of Applied Ethics at Łazarski University in Warsaw, Poland. He is an award-winning educator, researcher, and author, specializing in the philosophy of technology with a focus on the moral and legal challenges of artificial intelligence and robots. He is the author of over 100 scholarly articles and has published seventeen books, including Thinking Otherwise: Philosophy, Communication, Technology (Purdue University Press 2007), The Machine Question: Critical Perspectives on AI, Robots, and Ethics (MIT Press 2012), Robot Rights (MIT Press 2018), and Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond (MIT Press 2023).
Min
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Min Jiang (Ph.D.)
Professor of Communication Studies | Affiliate Faculty, International Studies
CTS-FGV Visiting Professor, FGV Law School, Rio de Janeiro
Secretariat Member, Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC)
China Director, Global Media and Internet Concentration Project (GMICP)
The 2024 China Media & Internet Industries Report of 25 Sectors is Here
Digital Sovereignty in the BRICS Countries (Cambridge University Press, 2025 Open Access)
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Min Jiang
Professor
U of North Carolina - Charlotte
Charlotte NC
United States
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