Research built on
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A long-term research collaboration between IEET and the Applied Ethics Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The initiative explores the ethics and politics of AI through postdoctoral fellowships, public lectures, conferences, and policy research.
How does artificial intelligence change the people using it? What does the future of work look like in an age of increasing automation? How will brain-machine interface technologies impact our basic capacities? These are the questions driving the AEC-IEET partnership.
The Ethics of Emerging Technologies initiative supports research at the nexus of philosophy, politics, and artificial intelligence. Three post-doctoral fellowships have been created — focused on the future of work, brain-machine interfaces, and social and international conflict — alongside public lectures, conferences, and a growing body of policy work.
Research publications
- "AI and Phronesis" — Nir Eisikovits and Dan Feldman, Moral Philosophy and Politics
- "AI and the Traditional Grounds for Human Rights" — Nir Eisikovits (forthcoming in Springer volume)
- "Workplace Automation and Political Replacement: A Valid Analogy?" — Jake Burley and Nir Eisikovits, AI and Ethics
- "The Post-Dystopian Technorealism of Ted Chiang" — James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits, JEET Vol. 32 No. 1
- "Should Accountants Be Afraid of AI?" — Eisikovits, Johnson, Markelevich, Accounting Horizons (2024)
- "A Review of The Ethics of AI and Robotics: A Buddhist Viewpoint" — James Hughes, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 28: 113–120
Policy papers
- "The Democratic Metaverse: Building an Extended Reality Safe for Citizens, Workers and Consumers" — Alec Stubbs, James Hughes, Nir Eisikovits
- "Emerging Technologies & Higher Education" — Jake Burley, Alec Stubbs, James Hughes, Nir Eisikovits
- "The Ethics of Automating Therapy" — Jake Burley, James Hughes, Alec Stubbs, Nir Eisikovits
- Neural Nexus: The Philosophy and Governance of Neurotechnology — Cody Turner
- "AI Agents in Higher Education" — Jake Burley
Popular media
- "There is No Such Thing as Robot Proofing" — Nir Eisikovits and Dan Feldman, Slate
- "ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and the collapse of the creative process" — Nir Eisikovits and Alec Stubbs, The Conversation
- "AI is killing choice and chance" — Nir Eisikovits and Dan Feldman, The Conversation
- "College could take place in the metaverse, but these problems must be overcome first" — Nir Eisikovits, The Conversation
- "The slippery slope of using AI and deepfakes to bring history to life" — Nir Eisikovits, The Conversation
- "AI is an existential threat – just not the way you think" — Nir Eisikovits, The Conversation
- "AI isn't close to becoming sentient" — Nir Eisikovits, The Conversation
- "War in Gaza: An ethicist explains why you shouldn't turn to social media" — Nir Eisikovits, The Conversation
- "TikTok fears point to larger problem: Poor media literacy in the social media age" — Nir Eisikovits, The Conversation
- "Newsrooms are experimenting with generative AI, warts and all" — Nir Eisikovits, The Conversation
In the news
- Is AI a job killer? IBM may think so, but it's all in how you use it. — The Boston Globe
- 'ChatGPT, tell me a story': AI gets literary — Christian Science Monitor
- Can AI programs be trusted to report the news? — Christian Science Monitor
- Can TikTok help push climate activism mainstream? — The Boston Globe
- The promise and the pitfalls of everyday artificial intelligence — Codcast, Commonwealth Magazine
- Your Girlfriend Might Not Be Real — Newsweek
- A technophobe's guide to AI chatbots — The Boston Globe
- Mass. bill proposed to ban sales and operation of weaponized robots — The Boston Globe
- Why AI Can Seem Sentient — Science for the Public (WGBH)
- "How AI-powered robots in law enforcement could become a tool for 'supercharging police bias'" — All Things Considered, WGBH
- AI Ethics — Nir Eisikovits with Boston Public Radio
- "Why a Chatbot Therapist Could be Worse than No Therapist at All" — All Things Considered, WGBH
Initiatives & resources
Tech Literacy Initiative
The Applied Ethics Center has partnered with the City of Boston to create Tech Talk — a program bringing together UMass Boston faculty and youth leaders to discuss the social and psychological implications of social media and AI use by teens. Topics include privacy, the future of work, AI and writing, and relationships with chatbots.
- Tech Literacy Initiative — Conclusion Memo
- Technology and Society Syllabus (100–200 level)
- Technology and Society Syllabus (300+ level)
Public lectures & podcast
IEET and the AEC have collaborated since 2022 on three post-doctoral fellowships, a public lecture series, and a growing body of policy and academic work.
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A research center affiliated with IEET, established within the ERATO Center at the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences at the University of Turin. HEET operationalizes IEET's research streams and supports the career development of early-career researchers in the ethics of technology.
The mission of HEET is to bring together voices that advocate for a responsible, constructive, and ethical approach to the most powerful emerging technologies. HEET draws on the expertise of the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences at the University of Turin to develop implementable research that can be applied at the European and international levels.
Research questions
What is Digital Humanism? Can a humanist perspective help meet the needs and challenges arising from digital technologies?
Can human enhancement technologies be used ethically for socially beneficial purposes?
Is it possible to design artificial intelligence that is trustworthy, safe, and reliable? How can those who design such systems be trained?
What are the most relevant ethical issues regarding AI, quantum technology, and biotechnology — and how can we deal with them in practice?
HEET team
Active programs
Directed by Dr. Umbrello and led by Cristiano Calì. Includes lectures, meetings, and edited volumes for the HEET-led Human Empowerment Policy Book Series (De Gruyter). Fellows also contribute to the Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies (Class A 11/C3).
Directed by Dr. Umbrello. Includes special issues of the International Journal of Quantum Information and Quantum Information Processing. Fellows work with European government agencies to drive responsible adoption of quantum computing and sensing.
Builds on the AEC-IEET collaboration on automation and ethics. The goal is to recruit and train early-career researchers on how to design AI systems that are safe, reliable, and trustworthy.
Explores theological and religious concerns arising from new technologies — including human bioenhancement, quantum technologies, and artificial intelligence.
HEET is IEET's Turin-based research hub, running programs in human enhancement, quantum ethics, trustworthy AI, and theology of technology.
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A Horizon Europe–funded initiative connecting researchers, policymakers, industry, and civil society to strengthen Europe's capacity to shape digital transformation in line with democratic values — ensuring technology truly serves people and society.
Technology profoundly shapes the world we live in. Digital Humanism offers a path to ensure that innovation in Europe strengthens human dignity, freedom, and democracy. EUDHIT's approach is to steer progress in a direction that puts people first — not to slow it down.
The initiative supports strengthening societies through Digital Humanism: shaping technology for democracy and inclusion, with human values at the core of digital futures.
Key facts
EUDHIT connects IEET with a pan-European network of researchers and policymakers working to keep democratic values at the center of digital transformation.
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A collaboration with the Antonianum's International Observatory for Integral Intelligence, Ethics and Public Value — exploring AI governance, Digital Humanism, and the philosophical limits of computational intelligence.
The Pontifical University Antonianum's Observatory offers a compelling intellectual interlocutor because of its emphasis on integral intelligence, public value, ethical governance, human dignity, critical judgment, and international cooperation. Its framing of AI as a challenge for global humanism — rather than merely a technical or national policy issue — aligns directly with IEET's commitment to publicly engaged, interdisciplinary, and globally oriented work on emerging technologies.
The collaboration connects with IEET and HEET's existing work, including the EUDHIT Horizon Europe project and the ongoing research programs at the University of Turin's ERATO Center.
Areas of collaboration
Responsible AI governance
HEET's work on assurance, procurement, auditability, documentation, and post-deployment monitoring connects with the Observatory's interest in ethical, legal, and cultural governance of AI systems.
Digital Humanism as an operational program
A shared question: how to move from general commitments to human-centered technology toward practical indicators, evaluation protocols, and institutional practices that protect dignity, agency, and public value.
Philosophy of mind and AI
Joint investigation into the limits of computational formalization of human experience — phenomenal consciousness, intentionality, embodied cognition — and what they mean for how we understand artificial intelligence.
International ethics and public value
Building shared frameworks for AI ethics that operate at the international level, connecting academic research with policy institutions, civil society, and interdisciplinary scholarship.
The Limits of the Computable: Structural Limits and Conditions for the Formalization of Human Experience in AI
A philosophical investigation into whether — and under what conditions — human experience can be computationally formalized. Working at the intersection of philosophy of mind, epistemology, and AI theory, the project analyzes computationalist, phenomenological, and enactive paradigms to ask: is the reducibility of experience to formalizable structures possible in principle, or does it run into structural limits that no technological advance can overcome? The research focuses on phenomenal consciousness, intentionality, affectivity, and embodied experience, and examines contemporary AI systems — especially large language models — as advanced forms of cognitive simulation. A 12-month project with a scientific committee of 10 members.
The Antonianum partnership brings a rigorous philosophical and theological perspective to IEET's work on AI, consciousness, and human dignity.
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IEET collaborates with universities, research centers, and policy bodies on research programs, fellowships, and joint publications. Reach out to discuss a potential collaboration.