Date: January 21, 2026 Time: 4:30 PM Venue: Aula Alpha (Building 24, Via Camillo Golgi 40, 20133, Milan)

Abstract: Artificial intelligence and automated systems are well known for raising ethical questions about how to act in dilemmatic scenarios — as the extensive literature on autonomous vehicles and autonomous weapons clearly illustrates. Yet an equally important political issue is emerging: who gets to decide, and through what processes, when it comes to governing AI and intelligent systems? What should be the role of developers, engineers, the broader public, and institutions? In other words, what would a fair and effective deliberative process look like in the age of AI? And what happens when AI itself can support collective decision-making — or even replace human deliberation altogether — as suggested by the case of the large-language-model-based system developed by Google DeepMind known as the “Habermas Machine”?

Alessandro Volpe is a Researcher in Moral Philosophy at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. He is a member of the European Centre for Social Ethics and scientific consultant of Fondazione Umberto Veronesi. His research focuses on the relationship between ethics and society, and contemporary critical theory. Since 2024, he is Managing Editor of the journal “The Future of Science and Ethics”.