SRI Seminar Series: Joel Z. Leibo, “A pragmatic view of AI personhood”

Our weekly SRI Seminar Series welcomes Joel Z. Leibo, senior staff research scientist at Google DeepMind and visiting professor at King’s College London, whose work bridges machine learning, computational neuroscience, and the study of cooperation in human societies. Leibo’s research explores how insights from biological, cultural, and institutional evolution can inform the development of artificial intelligence that is both human-compatible and socially responsible.

In this talk, Leibo will present a pragmatic view of AI personhood, arguing that personhood should be understood not as a fixed metaphysical property but as a flexible bundle of rights and responsibilities conferred to solve concrete governance problems. Drawing on examples from agentic AI, social roles, and digital identity systems, he will examine how unbundling personhood can support accountability, coordination, and conflict prevention—while also highlighting where design choices risk exploiting human social heuristics. The talk will offer a practical framework for integrating AI agents into society without relying on unresolved debates about consciousness or moral status.

Talk title

“A pragmatic view of AI personhood”

Abstract

The emergence of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is set to trigger a “Cambrian explosion” of new kinds of personhood. I will describe a pragmatic framework for navigating this diversification by treating personhood not as a metaphysical property to be discovered, but as a flexible bundle of obligations (rights and responsibilities) that societies confer upon entities for a variety of reasons, especially to solve concrete governance problems. I’ll argue that this traditional bundle can be unbundled, creating bespoke solutions for different contexts. This will allow for the creation of practical tools—such as facilitating AI contracting by creating a target “individual” that can be sanctioned—without needing to resolve intractable debates about an AI’s consciousness or rationality. And, I’ll explore how individuals fit in to social roles and discuss the use of decentralized digital identity technology, examining both “personhood as a problem,” where design choices can create “dark patterns” that exploit human social heuristics, and “personhood as a solution,” where conferring a bundle of obligations is necessary to ensure accountability or prevent conflict. By rejecting foundationalist quests for a single, essential definition of personhood, this talk will offer a more pragmatic and flexible way to think about integrating AI agents into our society.

Moderator: Nisarg Shah, Department of Computer Science

Registration

To register for the event, visit the official event page.

About Joel Z. Leibo

Joel Z. Leibo is a senior staff research scientist at Google DeepMind and visiting professor at King’s College London. He obtained his PhD from MIT where he studied computational neuroscience and machine learning with Tomaso Poggio. Joel is interested in reverse engineering human biological and cultural evolution to inform the development of artificial intelligence that is simultaneously human-like and human-compatible. In particular, Joel believes that theories of cooperation from fields like cultural evolution and institutional economics can be fruitfully applied to inform the development of ethical and effective artificial intelligence technology.

About the SRI Seminar Series

The SRI Seminar Series brings together the Schwartz Reisman community and beyond for a robust exchange of ideas that advance scholarship at the intersection of technology and society. Seminars are led by a leading or emerging scholar and feature extensive discussion.

Each week, a featured speaker will present for 45 minutes, followed by an open discussion. Registered attendees will be emailed a Zoom link before the event begins. The event will be recorded and posted online.