A Lecture Series on Philosohy of AI by David J. Gunkel (3)

Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond On Thursday, May 14, 2026, Professor David J. Gunkel (Northern Illinois University) delivered the final lecture in the Lecture Series on the Philosophy of AI at Peking University. The lecture was jointly organized by the Department of Philosophy, Peking University, and the Center for Philosophy and the Future of Humanity at Peking University. It was chaired by Dr. Sebastian Sunday Grève, Tenured Associate Professor of Philosophy at Peking University. This lecture addresses the question of whether AI, robots, and other seemingly intelligent artifacts should be recognized as socially significant entities, or treated merely as tools and property. It critiques the standard properties-based approach to moral status and introduces a relational alternative that focuses on observable social relationships. In doing so, the lecture reframes the question of AI moral status as a question about ourselves: how we define the boundaries of “we,” and how we take responsibility for our shared social world.