Navigating the Ethical Frontiers of AI for a Future of Complexity

“AI opens a Pandora’s Box of possibilities and challenges for the future. The outer limits of its potentials remain unknown, and so we must imagine what it might mean to cross this point of no return.”

AI research interests

• AI and Cultural Movements
• AI and Virtual Realities
• AI and Philosophy (time, space, mind, body)
• AI and the Ethics of the Future
• AI and Existential Risk

Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh is a philosopher, literary theorist, and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Babson College. His scholarly work explores concepts of chaos, illusion, violence, disappearance, delirium, silence, secrecy, and apocalypse. He has published nine books to date, including: The Chaotic Imagination (2010); Inflictions: The Writing of Violence (2012); The Radical Unspoken (2013); Insurgent, Poet, Mystic, Sectarian (2014); a two-volume project on “night” titled Night: A Philosophy of the After Dark (2020) and Night II: A Philosophy of the Last World (2022); and a two-volume project on “madness” titled Omnicide: Mania, Fatalism, and the Future-In-Delirium (2019) and Omnicide II: Mania, Doom, and the Future-In-Deception (2023). He is also the Founding Director of the Future Studies Program and Editor of the Futures Theory book series with Bloomsbury Press.

Recent publications

Omnicide: Mania, Fatalism, and the Future-In-Delirium (MIT Press, Urbanomic Series, 2019)

Omnicide II: Mania, Doom, and the Future-In-Deception (MIT Press, Urbanomic Series, 2023)

“Every AI-generated answer comes with a largely invisible water and energy footprint, raising an uncomfortable paradox: can a tool that has become a significant drain on natural resources also helps us achieve a more sustainable society? I’m excited to help Babson understand and navigate this tension using systems thinking and critical reasoning.”

AI research interests

• Sustainable solutions to AI’s natural resource use
• User awareness of AI natural resource use
• Using AI to improve accessibility of water quality data

Dr. Joanna C. Carey is a Professor of Earth & Environmental Science at Babson College and the Debi and Andy Butler Term Chair. She serves as the Faculty Director of Integrated Sustainability. At Babson she teaches Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) core classes in Climate & Economic Systems, as well as Food Systems. Her research focuses on examining how human activities are altering biogeochemical flows of carbon, nitrogen, and silicon cycling along the land-ocean continuum in temperate and polar ecosystems. She has published over 40 journal articles across a range of peer-reviewed publications, including Nature, Nature Geoscience, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Science.

Equally true in AI innovation and leadership development: “What got you here won’t get you there”

AI research interests

• AI, Law & Business / Professional Ethics
• AI & Integrated Sustainability
• AI & Human Rights
• AI in Executive Coaching and Leadership Development

Dr. David Nersessian is a Professor of Law at Babson College, where he teaches Business Law & Ethics to undergraduate and MBA students. Prior to completing his doctoral work, Dr. Nersessian practiced as a commercial litigator for six years with several large law firms and later spent five years as the vice president, trustee, and general counsel of an international educational nonprofit. He is a certified executive coach, focusing on leadership development in legal, entrepreneurship, and higher education and other nonprofit contexts. His current research focuses on: (i) the governance implications and ethical and legal risks arising from AI and digital transformation; (ii) the impact of AI on sustainability and systems thinking in corporate and academic contexts; and (iii) the intersection of AI and other cutting-edge technological advances with international human rights law, including human trafficking and genocide.

Recent publications

The Strategic Engagement of Business with the Sustainable Development Goals: A Systems Thinking Approach (with Sinan Erzurumlu, Vikki Rodgers, and Stephen Deets), 32(7) BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT 4954-69 (2023)

Human Trafficking in the Global Supply Chain: Using Machine Learning to Understand Corporate Disclosures under the UK Modern Slavery Act (with Dessislava Pachamanova), 35 HARVARD HUMAN RIGHTS JOURNAL 1-46 (2022)

Reorienting the Sharing Economy for Social Benefit: The Nonprofit Digital Platform Business Model (with Rubén Mancha and John Marthinsen), 18 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNAL 918-34 (2022)

From Automation to Autonomy: Legal and Ethical Responsibility Gaps in Artificial Intelligence Innovation (with Rubén Mancha), 27 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGY LAW REVIEW 55-96 (2020)

Systems Thinking as a Tool for Teaching Undergraduate Business Students Humanistic Management (with Stephen Deets, Vikki Rodgers, and Sinan Erzurumlu), 5 HUMANISTIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 177-97 (2020)