About the series

The burning question of our time is what it means to be human in the age of Artificial Intelligence. Philosophy plays a unique and crucial role in answering this question. Philosophers investigate whether AI can understand language, be creative, possess emotions, be conscious, have intentions, make plans, execute intentional actions, be moral or immoral, empathize, possess knowledge, and exhibit wisdom. The answers to these and many related questions not only are intellectually challenging but also have potential real-world implications for how AI is developed and used. 

Cambridge Elements in Philosophy and AI explores these questions and their ramifications. Each Element provides a survey of the literature, which will be a reliable resource for researchers and students, and also develops new ideas and arguments from the author’s viewpoint. The authors of the Elements include some of the most prominent senior figures and up-and-coming junior scholars in the field.  

Series editor

Herman Cappelen is a Chair Professor at the University of Hong Kong and the founder and director of the AI&Humanity-Lab. He has worked in many areas of philosophy, including philosophy of language, conceptual engineering, meta-philosophy, and the philosophy of AI. His most influential works include Fixing Language: An Essay on Conceptual Engineering (OUP, 2018), Philosophy without Intuitions (OUP, 2012), The Concept of Democracy (OUP, 2023), Making AI Intelligible (OUP, 2021), Relativism and Monadic Truth (OUP, 2009, with John Hawthorne), Insensitive Semantics (Blackwell, 2005 with Ernie Lepore), The Inessential Indexical (OUP, 2013, with Josh Dever). Cappelen and Josh Dever have written a three-volume introduction to contemporary philosophy of language:  Context and Communication (OUP, 2016), Puzzles of Reference (OUP, 2018), and Bad Language” (OUP, 2019). Cappelen has previously been a Chair Professor at The University of St Andrews, an associate professor at Oxford University, and a professor at The University of Oslo.