The Declaration of Independence in the Age of AI

This lecture argues that the Declaration of Independence remains central to constitutional meaning because it grounds the natural rights later protected by the United States Constitution and the United States Bill of Rights. In particular, the Declaration’s conception of inalienable rights informs the human-centered understanding of free speech embodied in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Because these rights were understood to belong to natural persons—citizens participating in a constitutional republic—Tsesis will argue that they should not extend to artificial intelligence systems. While AI can generate language, it lacks consciousness, agency, and natural rights; granting it First Amendment protections would depart from the Declaration’s principles and complicate democratic regulation of AI technologies.