Generative AI, agency, and the imperative of virtuosity a Buddhist perspective
Date and time: October 15, 2026, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm (London Time)
Venue: Senate House
Room: SWLT (Senate House, Wolfson Lecture Theatre) and online
Event type: Seminar
About this event
In this talk, Peter Hershock 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 relations. He will first draw on Buddhist conceptual resources to explore the causal complexity of human-AI relations, distinguishing between tool use and technology participation to clarify the agential risks of intelligent technology, most clearly exemplified by the dynamics of the digital attention economy.
He will then use this as a starting point to examine the agential novelty of generative AI and propose an alternative to the control-and-constrain approach to AI alignment: a collaborative and creative process of mutual attunement, drawing on contemporary conceptions of coevolution and collective intelligence.
The talk will conclude with an appeal for ethical diversity and the cultivation of responsive virtuosity as a practical and moral ideal, offering a means of transforming the AI crisis into both an ethical and evolutionary opportunity.
Sponsor and organiser
This event is organised by the SOAS Centre of Buddhist Studies. It is part of the Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies, which is kindly sponsored by The Tzu Chi Foundation.
About the speaker
Peter D. Hershock is an intercultural philosopher whose work draws on Buddhist thought to address contemporary global challenges, particularly emerging technologies. A co-founder of the Buddhism & AI Initiative, he is Adjunct Senior Fellow and former Director of the Asian Studies Development Program and Humane AI Initiative at the East-West Center in Honolulu. He also advises AI & Faith and the Union of Italian Buddhist Research Centre. Hershock has authored over fifty articles and chapters, and more than 15 books. His recent publications include Buddhism and Intelligent Technology: Toward a More Humane Future (2021) and Consciousness Mattering: A Buddhist Synthesis (2023).
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, organisation, and management. He has participated as an expert in EU working groups on telecommunications regulation.
Ali Hossaini 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’. Hossaini re-entered academia in 2016 when he launched Connected Culture at King’s College London. Sponsored by Ericsson, the project used artistic creations as a medium for developing 5G standards. He then co-founded, and co-directed, National Gallery X, a partnership with King’s College London, 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, a project supported by the Institute for Advanced Study of Nantes. Still an active artist, mostly in digital media, Hossaini is 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 political philosopher and theologian specialising in Old Testament hermeneutics. Her interdisciplinary research explores the relationship between religion and violence, and the political impact of biblical interpretation. She is Georgetown University Representative in Rome, a Research Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, and a researcher at FBK-ISR. She teaches at the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant’Anselmo and the Pontifical Gregorian University. Her recent publications include Exiting Violence: The Role of Religion (De Gruyter, 2024), co-edited with G. Mannion, and a chapter in Digitally Divided (Springer, 2026).
Chair
Stefania Travignin will be the chair for this event.
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), with the goal of promoting topics in Buddhist Studies.
