The Line: AI and the Future of Personhood

by James Boyle

A “terrific” exploration of AI in our chatbot-obsessed era—and how it will challenge our ideas about personhood (New Yorker)

Chatbots like ChatGPT have challenged human we are no longer the only beings capable of generating language and ideas fluently. But is ChatGPT conscious? Or is it merely engaging in sophisticated mimicry? And what happens in the future if the claims to consciousness are more credible? In The Line, James Boyle explores what these changes might do to our concept of personhood, to “the line” we believe separates our species from the rest of the world but that also separates “persons” with legal rights from objects.

The personhood wars—over the rights of corporations and animals, over the question of when life begins and ends—have always been contentious. We’ve even denied the personhood of members of our own species. How will those old fights affect the new ones, and vice versa? Boyle pursues these questions across a dizzying array of fields. He discusses moral philosophy and science fiction, transgenic species, nonhuman animals, the surprising history of corporate personality, and AI itself. Engaging with empathy and anthropomorphism, courtroom battles on behalf of chimps, and doom-laden projections about the threat of artificial intelligence, The Line offers fascinating and thoughtful answers to questions about our future that will arrive sooner than we think.

Genres: Artificial Intelligence, Science Fiction

336 pages, Hardcover

Published October 22, 2024

About the author

James Boyle is William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law at Duke Law School and the former Chairman of the Board of Creative Commons. His books include The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind; Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society; Cultural Environmentalism (with Lawrence Lessig); and Bound By Law: Tales from the Public Domain and Intellectual Property: Law & the Information Society - Cases & Materials: An Open Casebook (with Jennifer Jenkins).

Reviews

[Jeffery Jones]

An engaging, thoughtful, and, dare I say, "fun" book that challenges a reader to think about the wider implications of personhood. A book that is as much about the past and present of humanity as it is about the potential future of AI (and corporations and non-human animals).

[Brian Swain]

Easily the most important AI book I've ever read (and I've read about 25 of them in the past 2 years). The book is not about technology per se, but rather the philosophical, societal, and moralistic aspects attending the rapid growth of AI. As we draw ever closer to AGI and, ultimately, sentience, what will personhood actually mean? AI is already better at many things than the most accomplished human, in areas as far ranging as medicine, law, engineering, writing, and even art. And at some point in the coming years we will find ourselves augmenting humans with any number of AI-derived capabilities. At what point is a human no longer a human? At what point is a non0human so close to humanity that no one can tell the difference? And how will the rules of morality adapt when that day inexorably arrives?

[Adam]

It's a yawn. Anyone discussing the Chinese Room argument in 2020s deserves to not be treated seriously. The argument was bad when created and it's ridiculous now. It can be used to prove non thinking for anything, including humans.

[Austin Clowes]

Fascinating inquiry into how we currently (and may, in the future) draw the line for personhood and what that line means for progress and for ourselves. Highly recommend