Robots, AI and human uniqueness: learning what not to fear

Song, Robert

Abstract

There is something unnerving about robots and artificial intelligence. It is not just the immediate, practical concerns of whether they will take our jobs, exacerbate our social prejudices or enable big tech companies to invade our privacy. Nor is it the longer-term existential threats about our being annihilated or enslaved by hostile robotic superintelligences. Rather it is about the very idea of AI and what it represents for human identity. What would it mean if there were machines that had consciousness and displayed a similar level of intelligence and emotional responsiveness to that of human beings? What if there were a future when we were no longer able to distinguish human beings from robots? What would all this mean for human uniqueness?

Citation

Song, R. (2021). Robots, AI and human uniqueness: learning what not to fear. In J. Wyatt, & S. N. Williams (Eds.), The Robot Will See You Now (107-120)

• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2021
• Publication Date: Oct 31, 2021
• Deposit Date: Mar 21, 2025
• Pages: 107-120
• Book Title: The Robot Will See You Now
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3721079