Ringvorlesung „Zukünfte erfinden: Von Frankenstein zur Künstlichen Intelligenz“ Playing God? Creation, Responsibility, and the Ethics of Making Intelligence in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Referentin: Eileen Hunt, Teil 1 (University of Notre Dame, digital)

This lecture examines the first half of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a foundational text for contemporary debates in AI ethics. Focusing on Victor Frankenstein’s education, ambitions, and decision to create artificial life, the session explores whether it is ethical to bring an intelligent being into existence without knowing how it will experience consciousness, suffering, or autonomy. The lecture analyzes the power in balance between creator and creation and asks how Victor’s immediate rejection of the Creature models forms of technological irresponsibility that resonate with present-day concerns about AI development. By reading Victor and the Creature’s early relationship through ethical frameworks of care, responsibility, and unintended consequences, the lecture invites participants to reflect on what obligations creators have toward the intelligent systems they design.

Die Ringvorlesung „Zukünfte erfinden: Von Frankenstein zur Künstlichen Intelligenz“ lädt dazu ein, von Ingolstadt, dem legendären Schauplatz von Victor Frankensteins Experimenten, aus den Bogen zu schlagen bis in unsere digitale Gegenwart. Expertinnen und Experten aus Literaturwissenschaft, Philosophie, Technik- und Sozialwissenschaften erkunden, welche Bilder, Ideen und Geschichten unser Verhältnis zu den Dingen prägen, die wir erschaffen – besonders dann, wenn sie ein Eigenleben entwickeln.