UFH Colloquium Series: Dr Felicity Yuhan Fu

[Carien Smith]

The Department of Politics and Philosophy at the University of Fort Hare, in collaboration with the Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa, invites you to a Philosophy Colloquium presented by Dr Felicity Yuhan Fu.

Title: Beliefs about AI Systems are Identity-Constituting

Abstract:

This talk scrutinises individuals’ belief systems regarding AI. This AI-related belief system includes views about the nature of AI technology, its potential impact on humanity, whether AI has human-level agency or even consciousness, and its role as personal companion. I argue that AI-relevant belief systems, in comparison with beliefs about other technologies, are much more likely to be taken personally and morally. Moreover, diverging views about AI are crystallising into distinct ideological camps, potentially hardening social boundaries and intensifying antagonism between people groups. Specifically, I will make two claims: First, the persistent and unresolved debates surrounding AI and its role in our society will continue and intensify as the technology evolves. It is likely to generate increasing epistemic disagreement and echo chambers. Second, there are possibly two trajectories: beliefs about AI will either 1) be incorporated into partisan identity and political agendas, or 2) may solidify into a standalone moral framework and identifier that people use to navigate interpersonal and group relations.

Bio:

Felicity Yuhan Fu is a postdoctoral researcher in philosophy at Sun Yat-sen University and a Visiting Scholar at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge. She received her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Sheffield in 2023. Her research lies at the intersection of philosophy of mind, moral psychology, and cognitive science, with a particular interest in how moral cognition is learned, structured, and transformed. Her recent work examines how large language models and anthropomorphic AI (re)shape human moral understanding, and our concepts of life and death.

Date: 17 September 2026

Time: 13:00-14:00 SAST

Format: Online only.

Online link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/371095479880596?p=V0riK6Ovdb9Gi5CFxp

Kind regards,

Dr Carien Smith