David Gunkel

A CAPTCHA for Western Ethics.

That one was a good (and much needed) recovery after the idiocy of the Wedding Planner and the Zombie episodes. Though the range of narrative opportunities with the technology of holodeck was pretty much fully explored and exploited by ST:TNG.

Thanks...definitely need to give this a look.

What's better than a new book review? A new post about "Communicative #AI" @politybooks.bsky.social like this one from @mkmayhall.bsky.social

@mkmayhall.bsky.social Thank you so much for picking up a copy and for your kind comments about the book. This post really made my Friday.

I might have to borrow that line. Nicely formulated.

Kant's "indirect duties" argument has a number of rather profound theoretical and practical problems. Short version: the indirect duties argument is both anthropocentric and anthropomorphic as it makes the moral status of non-human others all about us and our interests.

"Artificially flavored European" is my favorite flavor of biscuit.

Books are #AI systems avant la lettre. Socrates says as much in Plato's "Phaedrus."

We had always called them Delicje, which is the Polish version.

Sam Altman warns there's no legal confidentiality when using ChatGPT as a therapist | TechCrunch In response to a question about how AI works with today's legal system, Altman said one of the problems of not yet having a legal or policy framework for AI is that there's no legal confidentiality fo...

This post brought to you by Sam Altman's recent comments concerning #AI chatbot therapists. techcrunch.com/2025/07/25/s...

#AI Chatbots & Privacy
The ToS/EULA is entirely inadequate for protecting user privacy. A better way is to give the #AI or #robot a right of privacy. See Alain & Jérémy Bensoussan's "Droit des Robots" (2015) and my own "Robot Rights" @mitpress.bsky.social (2018). mitpress.mit.edu/9780262551571/

"How to Make a #GenAI Poem"

Nice! Now you need to get this in front of Ron Howard's people for a bio-pic. I thinking Vincent Pastore for the lead role.

YouTube video by David Gunkel Dziwna Maszyna

"Dziwna Maszyna"
New composition (in Polish) for the Big Dada Project "Weird #AI" album. gunkelweb.com/BigDada
youtu.be/g1AUWc6ZIQo

I can highly recommend this book. Dang does really solid research and her writing is just a joy to read.

YouTube video by Reid Blackman Is AI a Person or a Thing… or Neither?

--Is #AI a Person or a Thing...or Neither?--
My conversation with Reid Blackman for the "Ethical Machines" podcast. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyqy...

"Robot Rights" @mitpress.bsky.social is now available in Persian translation due to the efforts of Reza Farajpour
linkedin.com/in/dr-reza-farajpour-1726772b9 and published by www.majdlaw.ir

YouTube video by David Gunkel Death of the Author

"Death of the Author"
New accordion-driven #GenAI composition from the Big Dada Project album Weird #AI. gunkelweb.com/BigDada
This one was prompted by the "I'm Sorry...This New Artist Completely Sucks" from Rick Beato. Song title obviously borrowed from Roland Barthes.
youtu.be/3KhWqeWbMuE

Academics rarely (if ever) get "fan mail." So I was both surprised and thrilled by this email from yesterday concerning the @noemamag.com essay on #LLMs and the "Death of the Author." noemamag.com/ai-signals-t...

Nicely put. Definitely agree.

Two items:

1) I had Bordwell for Film Theory at @uwmadison.bsky.social

2) After you start with Genette, you might want to check out Derrida's "Glas." You're going to curse me for ever suggesting this, but it's a character-building experience.

"Listeners should be warned"...I believe this kind of warning label should have already been applied to most of the slop that polluted top-40 radio and the Billboard Charts during the later decades of the 20th century.

Action shot of my "Person, Thing, Robot" @mitpress.bsky.social keynote at the "Legal Distinctions Between Persons and Things" conference @uantwerpen.be 🇧🇪 With thanks to @evabernetkempers.bsky.social for organizing a brilliant event and for the the image.

Really looking forward seeing this out and in print. Congratulations to you and all the contributors. This is a much needed contribution to the current literature on the subject.

TOLD YOU SO moment (see "The Machine Question" @mitpress.bsky.social 2012) - The European Commission's "Safety and Security" chapter of the "General-Purpose AI Code of Practice" includes a "non-human welfare" clause. digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/...

This looks fantastic. I cannot wait to give it a proper read. Thanks!

As with overdue library book, @jasonrubenstein.bsky.social needs to impose a fine.

PTR 🇧🇪 keynote at the Legal Distinctions between Persons and Things conference @uantwerpen.be @mitpress.bsky.social

@evabernetkempers.bsky.social getting things started at the "Legal Distinction Between Persons and Things" conference
@uantwerpen.be