The Legitimate Location, Extent, and Nature of Artificial Agency within Human Hierarchies

Date: November 24, 2025 (Monday)

Time: 4pm – 5pm

Venue: Academic Conference Room, 11/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong

Speaker: Joanna Bryson (Professor of Ethics and Technology, Hertie School)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is distinguished from ordinary software by its capacity for “autonomous” action – that is, action responding to context. Nevertheless, AI cannot be held to account, nor does it reliably respond to human incentives such as our justice systems. Further, the security and reliability of a bureaucracy depend on the diversity of interests composing it, which enables policing of possible corruption, intentional or unintentional. Thus, responsibility centred on empowered human agency is essential. Generative AI in particular should only be used in contexts where approximations are acceptable, whereas more conventional AI systems can be relied on to retrieve precise information such as retrieving prior cases, and to perform reliable logistics and planning. Both types of AI can only safely be used to enhance the capacities of responsible individuals. AI can never be held responsible, nor should it be used to limit human-to-human flows of information.

Since 2020 Full Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School, a Governance and Policy university in Berlin, Joanna Bryson is globally recognised for expertise in intelligence, both natural and artificial. Holding degrees in Social and Computer Sciences from Chicago, Edinburgh and MIT, an honorary doctorate from Louvain, and with research appearing in venues from reddit to Science, Bryson has advised the UN, UNESCO, EU, Council of Europe, OSCE, OECD and many national governments on AI policy.

Moderator: Benjamin Chen, Associate Professor & Director of the Law and Technology Centre, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law

To register, please go to https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=103684.  A paper will be circulated in advance and attendees will be expected to have read the paper before the seminar. 

We are applying for a CPD point with the Law Society of Hong Kong.