The AI avalanche has buried many of us in uncomfortable, existential questions. What does it mean if a computer can do our jobs better than we can? What happens when people turn to machines for comfort and friendship? What is creativity if creativity can be automated?
Philosopher Meghan Sullivan says this crisis isn't just felt by the average person who feels like AI is happening to them. On recent trips to Silicon Valley, she has spoken with many AI developers who feel conflicted. "Around here, as a result of this ubiquity of artificial intelligence, a whole lot of people are having these philosophical questions and crises right now, which make them really fun to talk to," Sullivan says.
Sullivan is a philosophy professor at Notre Dame and the author of The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning. Through Notre Dame's Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, she is meeting with AI leaders and developers to apply an ethical framework for AI — basically give AI a moral compass. Her mission is as ambitious as it sounds, but she is backed by Notre Dame's $50.8 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to champion philosophy and theology in the national conversation around AI.
Her reception in Silicon Valley has been mixed. She describes occasionally hearing comments akin to: "That's cute that you think that topics like virtue and justice could still be relevant in our world." But she finds that most developers are open and genuinely curious about philosophy. "I come out here, and I think, my gosh, I've been training for this for 25 years to have this conversation with you, says Sullivan. "And I'm so glad that now you're ready to do it."
In March, she attended Anthropic's 2-day summit, where Christian leaders discussed how Claude should approach the messy moral questions humans are bringing to chatbots. For instance, how should Claude react to a user who's grieving? What should it do when someone is at risk for self-harm?
As a virtue ethicist, Sullivan's field of philosophy centers around moral habits and practical wisdom. It's a school of thought that dates back to Aristotle in the early days of democracy in Athens. Having this background, Sullivan has a knack for making philosophy accessible to students, readers and now tech developers and executives. Whether in her classroom in South Bend or at a conference in Silicon Valley, Sullivan doesn't preach, she asks questions — by following the Socratic method — that help her audience realize they have more options than they've let themselves believe. "Those kinds of limitations in our imagination, those are one of the hardest forces for us to overthrow if we actually want to achieve flourishing," says Sullivan.
You still have a choice. Here's what you can do
Whether they're developers directly shaping AI or regular citizens navigating it, Sullivan's goal is to wake people up to their own agency. There are more paths towards the good life than we have been brave enough to imagine. "It's totally in the interest of politicians and very powerful corporate leaders to make you feel like you have no choice, says Sullivan. "You always have some choice. It might sometimes be a hard choice, but you do have it."
You can choose which companies you give your money and your data to. The dust has not settled, so Sullivan says we still need to use our voices where we can. "There's power in the purse. There's power in a democracy to vote, and there's power in capitalism to say, not my money."
This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Katie Monteleone and James Delahoussaye. It was edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour and Manoush Zomorodi. The digital story was written by Fiona Geiran.
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