AITEC Podcast

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. 

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.

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.