James Boyle

James Boyle serves as the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law at Duke University Law School, where his scholarship critically examines the evolving concept of personhood in the age of artificial intelligence. His interdisciplinary work bridges legal theory, philosophy, and technology ethics to address fundamental questions about moral boundaries between humans and machines.

Boyle's research centers on whether and how legal personhood might extend to advanced AI systems, drawing provocative parallels to historical debates where humanity denied personhood based on race and gender. He analyzes the philosophical foundations of consciousness in the context of language models, arguing that current AI represents a 'crisis of conscience' comparable to Darwin's evolutionary revelations. His framework identifies three potential pathways for AI to cross the personhood threshold: through embodied physical learning, revolutionary innovation beyond human knowledge, and the formation of morally concerned AI communities.

In his 2024 MIT Press book The Line: AI and the Future of Personhood, Boyle explores how society might navigate this frontier while avoiding the creation of 'immortal, amoral super-actors.' His recent keynote at the Elon/RTI Summit emphasized that we stand at a hinge point where AI could either 'diminish us or deepen us,' advocating for thoughtful ethical frameworks that learn from historical personhood struggles while preserving human dignity.