ESTAGA JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, ARTS AND HUMANITIES

The concept of personhood is perhaps one of the most divisive issues in philosophy and science today, the reason being that man is the subject and object of enquiry. He is the narrator and the narrative, the interrogator and the interrogative. The perennial question has been ‘whether it will be possible for man to detach himself from himself in other to objectively study himself?’ This enquiry into understanding the nature of the person became even more complicated with the invention and introduction of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence has a direct assault on personhood and has nearly eroded the private sphere; it has placed the person in the public purview thereby making it virtually impossible for man not to be accessible at every point in time. Privacy right of the human person is under serious attack by artificial intelligence. Around the world, too many citizens are exposed to identity theft, businesses are struggling to deal with cyberespionage and theft of intellectual property, banks are increasingly fighting regular cyberdisruptions, and the list of malware and breaches continue to mount against socialmedia networks and Internet platforms. Big data and analytics have revolutionized the way we live and work. The paper using analytic method interrogates from several vantage points the question of “personhood” and “privacy right” in the light of contemporary and near- future forms of ethical AI. It will also consider the incredible benefits we get from AI and also compare the impending risks if we do not address the issues of personal security and privacy right. The best way to achieve this is to be better informed, strike the right balance and ethically examine the impact of artificial intelligence on personhood and privacy right as it develops constantly and consistently.

Open Full Text (PDF)