On 15 October, Peter D. Hershock will deliver a talk on Buddhism and AI. The public talk will be followed by a roundtable discussion extending the conversation beyond Buddhism.
Discussants will include Angel González-Ferrer (Centre for Digital Culture at the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Vatican), Ali Hossaini (SOAS), and Debora Tonelli (Georgetown Representative in Rome). The event will conclude with an open Q&A.As part of the Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies, this hybrid event will be held at SOAS and livestreamed via Zoom. Please see the details and registration links below. The talk is free and open to all, and will be followed by a reception.
Title: Generative AI, agency, and the imperative of virtuosity: a Buddhist perspective
Time: 15 October 2026, 18:00-21:00 UK Time
Venue: SOAS (Senate House Building; Room SWLT)
Webpage:
Registration Form for In-Person Participation:
Zoom Registration:
https://us06web.
Abstract: In this talk, I will argue that humanity is nearing an evolutionary and ethical tipping point—an existential crisis that is most clearly manifest along the agential frontiers of human-AI interaction. I’ll first problematize the individual-biased conceptions of agents and agency that currently dominate in AI discourse and offer an alternative, relational conception of agency based on Buddhist causal and ontological insights. I’ll then draw a distinction between tools and technologies to explore the agential tradeoffs occurring along the frontiers of human-AI relations and both critically and creatively interpret these tradeoffs in light of intersections between contemporary evolutionary theory and Buddhist soteriology. I’ll conclude by outlining an ethics of responsive virtuosity as a Buddhist contribution to the global ethical ecosystem that will be needed for humanity to turn existential crisis into both ethical and evolutionary opportunity.
About the Speaker:
Peter D. Hershock is an intercultural philosopher who makes use of Buddhist conceptual resources to address contemporary issues of global concern, with a focus on emerging technologies. A co-founder of the Buddhism & AI Initiative, he is Adjunct Senior Fellow, former Director of the Asian Studies Development Program and Humane AI Initiative at the East-West Center in Honolulu; an Advisor to AI & Faith and the Union of Italian Buddhist Research Centre; and was a Fellow at the Berggruen Institute China Center in 2018-2019. He is the author of more than fifty journal articles and book chapters, and the author or editor of more than fifteen books. His two most recent books are: Buddhism and Intelligent Technology: Toward a More Humane Future (2021) and Consciousness Mattering: A Buddhist Synthesis(2023).
About the discussants:
Angel González-Ferrer is Director of the Centre for Digital Culture at the Dicastery for Culture and Education in the Vatican. He previously worked in the IT industry as head of product marketing and business development for data connectivity services at Telefónica, where he also held leadership positions in strategy, organization, and management. He has participated as an expert in EU working groups on telecommunications regulation.
Ali Hossaini, Professor of Digital Media and Culture at SOAS, works at the cutting edge of art, science, and technology. After launching several television networks, where he pioneered digital platforms, he began creating immersive art installations, winning acclaim from the New York Times, which calls him “a biochemist turned philosopher turned television producer turned visual poet.” In partnership with King’s College in London, Hossaini launched Connected Culture (2016), where artistic creations were a medium for developing 5G standards; and later co-founded and co-directed National Gallery X, where engineering researchers confronted the real-world challenges of an iconic art museum. He also worked with security think tank RUSI to combine art and fundamental theory of biology to model challenges from AI. Hossaini is also active in the IEEE Standards Association, where he has contributed to standards for ethical AI and BCI (Brain-Computer Interface), the European Public Policy Committee, and various UK advisories.
Debora Tonelli is a philosopher of politics and a theologian specialized in the hermeneutics of Old Testament. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the dynamics between religion and violence and the political impact of the biblical hermeneutics. She is Georgetown University Representative in Rome, Research Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and researcher at FBK-ISR. She teaches Political Philosophy and Politics and Religion at the Pontifical Athenaeum St Anselmo and Themes of Religion and Violence at Pontifical Gregorian University. Among her recent publications: Exiting Violence: The Role of Religion, volume edited with G. Mannion (De Gruyter 2024); and the chapter “Divine Violence: from Problem to Theme – The example of Debora’s Song”part of the volume Digitally Divided: The Impact of Technology on Belief and Societal Polarization, edited by M. Leone and S. Umbrello (Springer 2026, 25–43). With Stefania Travagnin, Debora Tonelli is leading the multi-year research project “Chinese Perspectives on AI in Global Context: Towards a New Ethical Eco-System”, co-organized by Georgetown University and SOAS and virtually hosted at the Georgetown Rome Office.
About the Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series: Launched in September, 2021, the Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series (印證佛學傑出學術系列講座) is a collaborative, multi-university partnership between Peking University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Inalco (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales), Princeton University, Harvard University, the University of British Columbia, University of California, Berkeley, SOAS, University of London, University of Tokyo, and Taiwan University. The Lecture Series is established in honour of Venerable Cheng-yen 證嚴, founder of Tzu Chi, and her mentor Yinshun 印順 (1906–2005), to promote topics in Buddhist Studies, and it is kindly sponsored by the Tzu Chi Foundation.
