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Harold Stoner Clark Lectures: Shannon Vallor

Humanizing Machines: AI, Ethics and the Future

Harold Stoner Clark Lectures: Shannon Vallor

Artificial intelligence poses profound ethical questions for humanity’s future. What will a world filled with intelligent machines mean for the human family? Will the immense benefits of AI be shared with us all, or reserved for an elite few? Can our collective humanity be enriched, expanded, refined and liberated by smart machines? Or will long-held ideals of a more humane future instead be degraded, marginalized and replaced by narrower machine values of optimization, prediction and ruthless efficiency? What would a future with humanized and humanizing technologies look like, and how can we get there?

11:10 a.m. lecture   |   “Looking in the AI Mirror”

4 p.m. lecture   |   “How to Cultivate Humane Machines (and People)”

Shannon Vallor is the William J. Rewak, S.J. Professor of Philosophy at Santa Clara University, where she researches the ethics of emerging technologies. She is the author of Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting from Oxford University Press (2016) and editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Technology. Her many awards include the 2015 World Technology Award in Ethics and multiple teaching honors. She serves on the board of the nonprofit Foundation for Responsible Robotics and regularly advises tech media, legislators, policymakers, investors, executives, engineers and design teams.

Admission is free. The Harold Stoner Clark Lectures, endowed by the late Mr. Clark and sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, were established in 1985.

Pre-lecture Discussion

Tuesday, Feb. 13, at 11:25 am
Swenson 104

Join us for a discussion in anticipation of the Harold Stoner Clark Lectures. Faculty, staff, students and classes are welcome! The goal of this presentation and discussion is to familiarize everyone with the topics of the Feb. 20 lectures.

For more information please contact Brian Collins.

Sponsored By
Department of Philosophy

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