Only faculty and fellowship candidates of Newspeak House may attend this seminar in person, however others can join the seminar online by registering here.

We are live-screening the second seminar in the HUMAIN Collective series, which explores the intersection of moral philosophy and technology under the title “AI, Machines and Consciousness.”

Our first guest speaker, Dr Peter Marsh from the University of Brighton, will challenge the traditional fixation on machine consciousness to examine what these debates reveal about power, compliance and relational framing. His talk will seek to argue that the normalisation of asymmetrical habits of obedience represents a significant danger, and he will propose a ‘third voice’ of negotiated trust that moves beyond the standard master-servant or tool-user models.

We will also be joined by artist Karis Benjamin for an honest and insightful exploration of the evolving relationship between the creator and the machine. Drawing on an extensive background in the arts, Karis will detail an initial scepticism towards Artificial Intelligence and the specific turning point that inspired the integration of these tools into a professional practice. This session moves beyond the final gallery as Karis walks us through their methods, the creation of their portfolio website and the surprising patterns discovered in the work that did not make the final cut.

In addition to the seminar, we have recently published a blog article titled Member Spotlight: Gothic Tropes and Modern Robot Ethics. This piece features the reflections of Professor Tracy Harwood, from De Montford University, on the short film “I Made a Self-Aware Robot,” exploring whether the ethics of robot-human relations depend more on the machine's capability or our own humanity.

As optional pre-reading to help frame our discussion, we recommend DeGrazia, D. (2022) 'Robots with Moral Status?', Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 65(1), pp. 73–88. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2022.0004.

AI, Machines and Consciousness - HUMAIN Seminar Live Screening