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Dr Stephen EyreWhat does the rise of Artificial Intelligence tell us about what it means to be human?
Language, creativity, consciousness and moral judgement have long been considered among the capacities that distinguish human beings from other animals and from the machines we create. Contemporary Artificial Intelligence is making those distinctions increasingly difficult to draw.
Machines can generate convincing language, images and music, process enormous quantities of information and participate in decisions affecting human lives. Yet important questions remain. Does an AI understand what it says? Can a machine genuinely be creative? Could an artificial system ever be conscious? Who should be responsible when decisions are made with the assistance of AI?
This interdisciplinary course approaches Artificial Intelligence through philosophy, literature, music, visual culture, the history of science and contemporary technological debate. Rather than treating AI simply as a technology, students use it as a way of examining much older questions about intelligence, identity, creativity and human experience Classic arguments about mind, language and consciousness are considered alongside hands-on encounters with contemporary AI systems and current debates surrounding generative AI, authorship, copyright, responsibility and ethics.
Oxford itself provides an important setting for the course. Its museums and collections allow students to place contemporary AI within a much longer history of human attempts to understand, represent and extend the capabilities of the human mind No previous technical knowledge of Artificial Intelligence or computer science is required. The course is designed for students from any academic discipline with an interest in the intellectual, cultural and ethical questions raised by AI.
Week 1 – What Makes Us Human? Minds, Animals and Machines
We begin with the central question of the course: what, if anything, distinguishes human minds from animal and artificial ones? Students consider some of the capacities traditionally regarded as distinctively human, including reason, language, self-consciousness and creativity. This introduces one of the oldest problems in philosophy: how can we know whether another being is conscious Thomas Nagel’s famous question, “What is it like to be a bat?”, provides one route into the problem of other minds, while Alan Turing’s work on machine intelligence asks whether observable behaviour might be enough to demonstrate intelligence. Contemporary research into animal cognition provides another perspective. If determining what another animal experiences is difficult, what kind of evidence would persuade us that an artificial system possessed experiences of its own?
Week Two – Language, Thought and Artificial Intelligence
Can a machine use language without understanding it? Large language models can produce fluent, persuasive and apparently knowledgeable responses. This week explores the relationship between language, thought and understanding and considers John Searle’s famous Chinese Room argument: does manipulating symbols according to rules amount to understanding what those symbols mean?
Students test these questions through guided encounters with contemporary AI systems. We examine situations in which AI appears remarkably capable alongside examples that expose the distinction between fluency and understanding, prediction and explanation, and information and knowledge. This also raises an increasingly important academic question: if a machine can produce a convincing answer without necessarily understanding it in the way a human speaker does, how should we evaluate what it tells us? Students consider what responsible intellectual use of Artificial Intelligence requires from the human user.
Week 3 – The Creative Machine — Art, Music and Authorship
Creativity has often been regarded as one of the most distinctively human capacities. What happens when machines begin to write stories, create images and compose music? Students compare human- and AI-generated creative work and consider whether knowing who — or what — created something changes our experience of it. We ask what originality and creativity actually mean. Does artistic creation require intention or consciousness? Can something be considered art if nobody experienced anything while making it? Literature, visual art and music provide important case studies for considering style, imitation and authorship. If a generative model trained upon thousands of human works produces something new, whose creativity does that work represent?
These questions also have immediate practical consequences. Students consider contemporary debates surrounding copyright, training data, artistic labour, ownership and AI-generated work. By the end of the week, students identify the subject of their individual final project.
Week Four– AI, Ethics and Responsibility
Artificial Intelligence is increasingly involved in decisions affecting education, employment, healthcare, communication and culture. Philosophical questions about machines therefore have important consequences for society. Who is responsible when an AI-assisted decision causes harm? Should a human remain ultimately responsible for decisions affecting human lives? How should questions of bias, fairness, privacy and accountability be addressed? Students examine contemporary cases and consider different approaches to AI governance and human oversight. An important distinction runs throughout the discussion: what AI systems can do is a different question from what they should be allowed to do.
The week also returns to consciousness from an ethical perspective. Moral consideration has traditionally been extended to beings capable of experiences such as pleasure and suffering. If an artificial system were ever to display credible indicators of consciousness, could it itself become an object of moral concern rather than simply a tool? These questions have no simple answers and provide an opportunity to explore how ethical reasoning operates when technology develops faster than social consensus.
Week Five – Artificial Intelligence and the Human
The final week returns to the question with which the course began: What, if anything, remains distinctively human in the age of Artificial Intelligence? Students bring together ideas encountered throughout the programme and present their individual projects at a concluding seminar conference. Projects may approach the subject through philosophy, literature, music, art, technology, law, ethics or another relevant disciplinary perspective.
Possible questions might include whether AI can understand language; whether consciousness is necessary for intelligence; whether machines can genuinely be creative; whether art requires human intention; how authorship should be understood in generative AI; whether humans can form meaningful relationships with artificial systems; whether artificial consciousness would create moral obligations; or who should ultimately bear responsibility for AI-assisted decisions. Students are encouraged to develop their own argument, identify serious objections to their position and respond to them through evidence and reasoned discussion. The course concludes by returning to its central purpose: using Artificial Intelligence as a new perspective from which to reconsider one of humanity’s oldest questions — what does it mean to be human?
Oxford-Based Study
Where appropriate and subject to availability, teaching may incorporate visits or object-based sessions within Oxford.
The History of Science Museum can place Artificial Intelligence within the much longer history of instruments created to calculate, measure and extend human intellectual capabilities.
The Ashmolean Museum offers opportunities to consider authorship, creativity, intention and interpretation through objects and artworks produced across very different historical and technological contexts.
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History provides another perspective on intelligence and consciousness through questions surrounding animal cognition and the relationship between human and non-human minds.
These opportunities allow students to connect contemporary debates surrounding AI with the scientific, intellectual and cultural histories represented throughout Oxford.
Some reading before attending the programme is strongly recommended.
The precise readings will be confirmed before the course and will combine classic texts with recent material reflecting developments in Artificial Intelligence.
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