Prof Shannon Vallor

Director of the Centre for Technomoral Futures at the University of Edinburgh

Shannon is director of the Centre for Technomoral Futures at the University of Edinburgh. Her research explores how new technologies, especially AI, robotics, and data science, reshape human moral character, habits, and practices. Professor Vallor’s work includes advising policymakers and industry on the ethical design and use of AI. She is the author of the book Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting (Oxford University Press, 2016) and the forthcoming Lessons from the AI Mirror: Rebuilding Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking. https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/shannon-vallor

AI becoming sentient is risky, but that’s not the big threat. Here’s what is…

What if ‘will AIs pose an existential threat if they become sentient?’ is the wrong question? What if the threat to humanity is not that today’s AIs become sentient, but the fact that they won’t?