March 30, 2026, 12:15 – 2:45 PM
Drinko Hall, Saxbe Auditorium, Moritz College of Law. 55 W 12th Ave Columbus, OH
We have always assumed that acting intelligently requires being intelligent. Artificial intelligence dismantles this assumption. In this lecture, Professor Floridi will argue that AI is best understood not as a new form of intelligence but as a radically new kind of agency: systems that act effectively, solve problems, shape outcomes, and carry significant consequences, without any understanding, intention, or genuine reasoning. What we have achieved is a decoupling of successful agency from intelligence.
This shift matters for design, governance, and regulation, both ethically and legally. Rather than debating whether AI 'really' thinks, Floridi suggests we ask: what kind of agents are these systems, and what does their growing presence demand of us?
Luciano Floridi, John K. Castle Professor in the Practice of Cognitive Science and the Founding Director of the Digital Ethics Center at Yale University. Commentator: Kati Kish Bar-On, Alfred P. Sloan Meta-Science and AI postdoctoral fellow at Boston University, visiting scholar at Harvard Business School, and lecturer at Northeastern University.
Lunch will be provided for those who register. Livestream will also be available. Register here.