Arthur F. & Barbara G. Gianelli Annual Lecture: “On AI Personhood Without Sentience” by Seth Lazar at St. John's University

In April 2025, Seth Lazar delivered the inaugural Arthur F. and Barbara Gianelli Lecture in the Philosophy of Science at St. John’s University. His talk, titled “On AI Personhood Without Sentience,” explored whether future AI systems — despite lacking consciousness — might nonetheless meet the moral and political criteria for personhood under frameworks such as John Rawls’s Political Conception of the Person.

Drawing on current developments in artificial agency and political philosophy, Lazar argued that certain kinds of AI may soon warrant serious consideration within our existing theories of moral and legal responsibility. The lecture addressed both the ethical promise and democratic risks of granting personhood to non-sentient systems, and prompted wide-ranging discussion among faculty, students, and administrators.

The event marked the launch of a new lecture series honoring the legacy of Arthur F. Gianelli, a long-serving professor of philosophy at St. John’s.