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Muriel Leuenberger is a postdoctoral researcher in the Digital Society Initiative and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Zurich. Her research interests include the ethics of technology and AI, medical ethics (neuro-ethics in particular), philosophy of mind, meaning in life, and the philosophy of identity, authenticity, and genealogy. Today we will be discussing her articles “Technology, Personal Information, and Identity” and “Track Thyself? The Value and Ethics of Self-knowledge Through Technology”—both published in 2024.

Some of the topics we discuss are the different types of personal information technology, narrative identity theory, and the effects that personal information technology can have on our personal identity (positive, negative, and ambiguous)—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

For more info on the show, please visit ethicscircle.org.

Peter Hershock is Manager of the Asian Studies Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Most recently, he has helped launch the East-West Center’s initiative on Humane Artificial Intelligence, with a focus on the societal impacts and ethical issues raised by emerging technologies. Today we will be discussing his book Buddhism and Intelligent Technology: Toward A More Humane Future, published in 2021.

Some of the topics we discuss are the types of attention that humans have, the effect of the attention economy on our attention (through a Buddhist lens), the problems with digital hedonism as well as with digital asceticism, and how to reclaim our attention in our day and age—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

For more info on the show, please visit ethicscircle.org.

Thomas Nys is in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam. Bart Engelen is an associate professor at Tilburg University, also in the Netherlands. Together, they have co-authored a number of essays. Today we will be discussing their chapter from the recently published The Philosophy of Online Manipulation, published in 2020. The title of this chapter is “Commercial Online Choice Architecture: When Roads Are Paved With Bad Intentions.”

Some of the topics we discuss are commercial online choice architecture (for which they use the acronym COCA), whether COCAs can be said to be manipulative, different conceptions of what manipulation is, how COCAs can undermine our autonomy, and what is at stake when our autonomy is eroded by web-based commercial interests—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

For more info on the show, please visit ethicscircle.org.

Giovanni Rubeis is a professor and head of the Department of Biomedical Ethics and Healthcare Ethics at the Karl Landsteiner Private University in Vienna. He also has worked as an ethics consultant for various biotech companies. He is the author of the recently published Ethics of Medical AI. And today we are chatting with Giovanni about his article on liquid health.

Some of the topics we discuss are the notion of liquification, the concept of surveillance capitalism, and the perils of liquid surveillance in healthcare—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

Giovanni Rubeis is a professor and head of the Department of Biomedical Ethics and Healthcare Ethics at the Karl Landsteiner Private University in Vienna. He also has worked as an ethics consultant for various biotech companies. And he is the author of Ethics of Medical AI.

Some of the topics we discuss are the history of AI in healthcare, past failures of medical AI (such as IBM’s Watson Health), the prospect of having digital twins to enable better healthcare strategies, and what we lose when we think only in terms of measurable data—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

David Martens is a professor of data science in the department of engineering management at the University of Antwerp, and he is the author of Data Science Ethics: Concepts, Techniques, and Cautionary Tales.

Some of the topics we discuss are the relationship between data science and artificial intelligence, ethical concerns during the data collection process, the European law known as the General Data Protection Regulation, the problem of re-identification of individuals if data that’s made public isn’t properly anonymized, and the dangers of launching powerful AI models for use by the wider public without any oversight—among many other topics. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Carlos Montemayor is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University. He is the author of many articles and books, including his 2023 work The Prospect of a Humanitarian Artificial Intelligence: Agency and Alignment. 

Some of the topics we discuss are the centrality of attention when it comes to intelligence, the possibility of being an intelligent agent without consciousness, the threats that AI poses to humans, and the notion of a collective artificial intelligence, among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation. 

Thomas Telving has an MA in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of Southern Denmark. He is the author of several articles on the ethics of artificial intelligence and human-robot interaction. And he is the author of the recent book Killing Sophia: Consciousness, Empathy, and Reason in the Age of Intelligent Robots. 

Some of the topics we discuss are human empathy, the high likelihood that humans will eventually feel empathy for humanoid robots, Thomas’ thought-experiment regarding how humans would respond if given an order to destroy a highly-realistic humanoid robot, the prospect of granting robots rights, and many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation.

In this trailer, we introduce the podcast and give you a glimpse into what's in store!

Elyakim Kislev is a senior lecturer in the School of Public Policy and Governance at the Hebrew University; there he specializes in relationships, technology, loneliness, and singles studies. Today we’ll be discussing his book Relationships 5.0: How AI, VR, and Robots Will Reshape Our Emotional Lives.

Some of the topics we discuss are the effect of technology on relationships throughout human history, the potential for meeting human relational needs through technology, and the challenge that emerging technologies pose on our existing forms of moral education—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

For more info on the show, please visit ethicscircle.org.

Kelly McDonough is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas, Austin. We'll be discussing her new book Indigenous Science and Technology: Nahuas and the World around Them (2024). This is a work in Nahua intellectual history, and it examines how Nahuas have explored, understood, and explained the world across pre-invasion, colonial, and contemporary eras.

Some of the topics we discuss are competing conceptions of science and technology, whether only Western science is real science, Nahua science and technology, and the Nahua focus on balance and interrelatedness—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. 

Sara Migliorini is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Macau, specializing in international law, AI, and big data. We'll be discussing her 2023 article "Biometric Harm," which examines how the use of biometric identification—identifying people by their bodily or behavioral features—can pose significant harm to both individuals and society.

Some of the topics we discuss are the different technologies used for biometric identification, the human need for unobserved time, the right to control our informational narrative, and laws that might protect us from biometric harm—among many other topics. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

For more info on the show, please visit ethicscircle.org.

Amy Kind is the Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College, as well as the Director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies. She is a leading philosopher in the philosophy of mind, with a focus on imagination and consciousness. Her books include Imagination and Creative Thinking and Persons and Personal Identity. Today, we’ll explore her recent article, Biometrics and the Metaphysics of Personal Identity.

Some of the topics we discuss are the metaphysics of personal identity and the question of whether biometric technology actually tracks personal identity. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

For more info on the show, please visit ethicscircle.org.

Philosopher Jeff Kane joins us to discuss his new book The Emergence of Mind: Where Technology Ends and We Begin. In an age where AI writes poems, paints portraits, and mimics conversation, Kane argues that the human mind remains fundamentally different—not because of what it does, but because of what it is. We explore the moral risks of thinking of ourselves as machines, the embodied nature of thought, the deep structure of human values, and why lived experience—not information processing—grounds what it means to be human.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Caroline Ashcroft, Lecturer in Politics at the University of Oxford and author of Catastrophic Technology in Cold War Political Thought. Drawing on figures like Arendt, Jonas, Ellul, and Marcuse, Ashcroft explores a powerful yet underexamined idea: that modern technology is not just risky or disruptive—but fundamentally catastrophic. We discuss how mid-century political theorists viewed technology as reshaping the environment, the self, and the world in ways that eroded human dignity, democratic life, and any sense of limits.

For more info, visit ethicscircle.org.

Philosopher Teresa Baron joins us to discuss her book The Artificial Womb on Trial. As artificial womb technology edges closer to reality, Baron asks a different question: not just what ectogenesis means for society, but how we ethically get there. From human subject trials to questions of consent, regulation, and reproductive justice, this episode puts the development process itself under the bioethical microscope.

For more info, visit ethicscircle.org.

What does it mean to live well in an AI-driven world—and how can we use AI to help us get there?

In this episode, we speak with psychologist and neuroscientist Dr. Stephen Kosslyn. Stephen Kosslyn is Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, and he is former chair of the Harvard psychology department and dean of social sciences. He is currently the CEO of Active Learning Sciences. We discuss how generative AI isn’t just a tool for speed and convenience—it can be a cognitive amplifier for building the kind of life we actually want. Drawing from his book Learning to Flourish in the Age of AI, we explore how to use large language models to set life goals, stay motivated, communicate better, manage emotions, understand ourselves and others, and think more clearly.

For more info, visit ethicscircle.org.

What if the best AI art doesn’t care what we think? In this episode, we talk with philosopher Alice Helliwell about her provocative idea: that future AI might create aesthetic value not by mimicking human tastes, but by challenging them. Drawing from her 2024 article “Aesthetic Value and the AI Alignment Problem,” we explore why perfect alignment isn't always ideal—and how a little artistic misalignment could open new creative frontiers.

For more info, visit ethicscircle.org.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Marianna Capasso, a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University, about her 2022 book chapter “Manipulation as Digital Invasion: A Neo-Republican Approach”, which can be found in The Philosophy of Online Manipulation, published by Routledge.

Drawing on a neo-republican conception of freedom, Dr. Capasso analyzes the ethical status of digital nudges—subtle, non-intrusive design elements in digital interfaces that gently guide users towards a specific action or decision—and explores when they cross the line into wrongful manipulation. We discuss key concepts like domination, user control, algorithmic bias, and what it means to be free in a digital world.

For more info, visit ethicscircle.org.