James Boyle: The Line—AI And the Future of Personhood

James Boyle: The Line—AI And the Future of Personhood

Author: Helen and Dave Edwards September 28, 2024 Duration: 58:04

We're excited to welcome Jamie Boyle to the podcast. Jamie is a law professor and author of the thought-provoking book The Line: AI and the Future of Personhood.

In The Line, Jamie challenges our assumptions about personhood and humanity, arguing that these boundaries are more fluid than traditionally believed. He explores diverse contexts like animal rights, corporate personhood, and AI development to illustrate how debates around personhood permeate philosophy, law, art, and morality.

Jamie uses fascinating examples from science fiction, legal history, and philosophy to illustrate the challenges we face in defining the rights and moral status of artificial entities. He argues that grappling with these questions may lead to a profound re-examination of human identity and consciousness.

What's particularly compelling about Jamie’s approach is how he frames this as a journey of moral expansion, drawing parallels to how we've expanded our circle of empathy in the past. He also offers surprising insights into legal history, revealing how corporate personhood emerged more by accident than design—a cautionary tale as we consider AI rights.

We believe this book is both ahead of its time and right on time. It sharpens our understanding of difficult concepts—namely, that the boundaries between organic and synthetic are blurring, creating profound existential challenges we need to prepare for now.

To quote Jamie from The Line: "Grappling with the question of synthetic others may bring about a reexamination of the nature of human identity and consciousness. I want to stress the potential magnitude of that reexamination. This process may offer challenges to our self conception unparalleled since secular philosophers declared that we would have to learn to live with a god shaped hole at the center of the universe."

Let's dive into our conversation with Jamie Boyle.


If you enjoy our podcasts, please subscribe and leave a positive rating or comment. Sharing your positive feedback helps us reach more people and connect them with the world’s great minds.

Subscribe to get Artificiality delivered to your email

Learn about our book Make Better Decisions and buy it on Amazon

Thanks to Jonathan Coulton for our music


#artificiality #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #airesearch #complexity #intimacyeconomy #spaciality #consciousness #knowledge #mindforourminds


Hosted by Helen and Dave Edwards, Stay Human, from the Artificiality Institute is a conversation that lives in the messy, human space between our tools and our selves. Each episode digs into the subtle ways artificial intelligence is reshaping our daily decisions, our creative impulses, and even our sense of identity. This isn't a technical manual or a series of futuristic predictions; it's a grounded exploration of how we maintain our agency in a world increasingly mediated by algorithms. The podcast operates from a core belief: that our engagement with AI should be about more than just safety or efficiency-it needs to be meaningful and worthwhile. You'll hear discussions rooted in story-based research, where complex ideas about cognition and ethics are unpacked through relatable narratives and real-world examples. The goal is to provide a framework for thoughtful choice, helping each of us consciously design the relationship we want with the machines in our lives. Tuning in offers a chance to step back from the hype and consider how we can actively remain the authors of our own minds, preserving what makes us uniquely human even as the technology evolves. It's an essential listen for anyone curious about the personal and philosophical dimensions of our digital age.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Stay Human, from the Artificiality Institute
Podcast Episodes
Doyne Farmer: Making Sense of Chaos [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:46
We’re excited to welcome Doyne Farmer to the podcast. Doyne is a pioneering complexity scientist and a leading thinker on economic systems, technological change, and the future of society. Doyne is a Professor of Complex…
Shannon Vallor: The AI Mirror [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:34
We're excited to welcome to the podcast Shannon Vallor, professor of ethics and technology at the University of Edinburgh, and the author of The AI Mirror. In her book, Shannon invites us to rethink AI—not as a futuristi…
Matt Beane: The Skill Code [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:34
We're excited to welcome to the podcast Matt Beane, Assistant Professor at UC Santa Barbara and the author of the book "The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines." Matt’s research invest…
Emily M. Bender: AI, Linguistics, Parrots, and more! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:18
We're excited to welcome to the podcast Emily M. Bender, professor of computational linguistics at the University of Washington. As our listeners know, we enjoy tapping expertise in fields adjacent to the intersection of…
John Havens: Heartificial Intelligence [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:29
We're excited to welcome to the podcast John Havens, a multifaceted thinker at the intersection of technology, ethics, and sustainability. John's journey has taken him from professional acting to becoming a thought leade…
Leslie Valiant: Educability [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:41
We’re excited to welcome to the podcast Leslie Valiant, a pioneering computer scientist and Turing Award winner renowned for his groundbreaking work in machine learning and computational learning theory. In his seminal 1…
Jonathan Feinstein: The Context of Creativity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:31
We’re excited to welcome to the podcast Jonathan Feinstein, professor at the Yale School of Management and author of Creativity in Large-Scale Contexts: Guiding Creative Engagement and Exploration. Our interest in creati…
Karaitiana Taiuru: Indigenous AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:01
We’re excited to welcome to the podcast Karaitiana Taiuru. Dr Taiuru is a leading authority and a highly accomplished visionary Māori technology ethicist specialising in Māori rights with AI, Māori Data Sovereignty and G…
Omri Allouche: Gong AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:47
We’re excited to welcome to the podcast Omri Allouche, the VP of Research at Gong, an AI-driven revenue intelligence platform for B2B sales teams. Omri has had a fascinating career journey with a PhD in computational eco…
Susannah Fox: Rebel Health [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:52
We’re excited to welcome to the podcast Susannah Fox, a renowned researcher who has spent over 20 years studying how patients and caregivers use the internet to gather information and support each other. Susannah has col…