In a groundbreaking seminar that captivated the minds of students from multiple Colleges in UM on 24 January, 2024, Prof. Zhang Ying led a thought-provoking discussion titled “Would you be my V-AI-lentine?”. Prof. Zhang is from the Department of Philosophy is also a senior College Fellow of MLC. The event, originally scheduled for one hour, had to be extended due to the overwhelming engagement and curiosity of the attendees. The packed Academy of Aesthetic Education was a testament to the burgeoning interest in the evolving relationship between humans and artificial intelligence. Prof. Zhang navigated through the complex possibilities of robots becoming fully self-conscious, the criteria that would define a robot as a person, and the potential for robots to be recognized as moral and legal agents.
The seminar included a discussion session led by MLCers Fan Yulin and Zou Xixian. This seminar not only challenged the attendees to rethink the future of human-robot interactions but also to contemplate the ethical and legal frameworks that might one day extend to AI entities. MLC expresses their wholehearted appreciation to Prof. Zhang’s dedication to philosophy and inter-disciplinary education at the College.
