Published by Knight First Amendment Institute: 'Anticipatory AI Ethics' Essay by Seth Lazar

In the essay “Anticipatory AI Ethics: Steering AI Ethics Towards the Technological Horizon”, published by the Knight First Amendment Institute on May 1,  2025, Seth Lazar defends a particular approach to anticipatory ethics that avoids hype and speculative excess. He argues that while reactive ethical frameworks fall short, speculation about future AI risks becomes irresponsible unless grounded in epistemic humility and a clearly defined technological horizon—the set of possible AI futures that are meaningfully foreseeable today. Lazar addresses both moral and epistemic critiques of forward-looking ethics and concludes with a cautious question: can genuinely transformative AI ever lie within our current horizon?

Read the full essay here.