The first workshop was led by Stefania Travagnin, reader in Chinese Buddhism at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London), and Peter Herschock, director of the Asia Studies Development Program and coordinator of the Humane AI Initiative at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Highlighting existing debates in the field of artificial intelligence, the discussion centered on the complex and often conflictual history of relationships between humans and machines, placing current controversies in a wider context. Participants noted one irony of the current moment—that the progressive humanization of machines is taking place alongside an increasing dehumanization of culture, politics, and society in many parts of the world. A key issue is how to understand—and regulate—the boundaries between humans and machines amid emergent, unprecedented patterns of inter-action. Different theoretical and practical understandings of consciousness and relationality, drawing on the insights of Buddhism in particular, punctuated the discussion.
This workshop was co-sponsored by the Georgetown University Representative Office in Rome and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London).
Photo courtesy of Flickr user UN Geneva
