Robots and other kinds of artificial intelligence (AI) are a curious sort of thing. On the one hand, they are designed and manufactured technological artifacts. They are things. Yet, and on the other hand, these things are not quite like other things. They seem to have social presence. They are able to talk and interact with us. And many are designed to mimic or simulate the capabilities and behaviors that are commonly associated with human or animal intelligence. These technologies therefore invite and encourage zoomorphism, anthropomorphism, and even personification.
In the book Person, Thing, Robot (MIT Press, 2023), David J. Gunkel sets out to explore and answer the vexing question: What exactly are these things? Rather than try to fit robots and AI into the existing moral and legal categories by way of arguing for either their reification or personification, however, Gunkel argues for a revolutionary reformulation of the entire system, developing a new approach to technology ethics and law that can scale to the unique opportunities and challenges of the twenty-first century and beyond.