Hi, it’s Vanessa, your ENLIGHTENMENT host.

We had a great Philosophy Café talk last March, “How Should We View A.I.? And How Does It See Us?” with Sac State professor Garret Merriam. And while our discussion covered a range of topics on the emotional and societal impact of using Artificial Intelligence, we ran out of time with a lot of questions unanswered.

So we’re doing a second Café talk on "A.I. and Us,” focusing on these two topics:

• The moral status of A.I.: What would need to be true for A.I.-powered beings to have rights? How would we know if they met these criteria? What consequences would this have for society at large?

• The ethics of using A.I. in lethal situations: Should we build robots and autonomous weapon systems that can make life and death decisions without human oversight? How will that change the ethics of war? What happens if a machine commits a war crime? What consequences might this have for society at large?

Join me for another thought-provoking Philosophy Café with Garret on this potentially-life-changing subject.

This is a informal, interactive conversation that welcomes anyone curious about the philosophical implications of AI—no background in philosophy is required. Bring your ideas, questions, and curiosity (nothing is too dumb or too small to ask) as we explore how humanity shares a future with intelligent machines.

Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 for students. There will be some complementary drinks and snacks, and please feel free to BYO.

Sign up to attend by registering at our Eventbrite link here.

Photo: Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos