Northern Illinois University
Department of Communication
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Professor, Media Studies and Department Chair

Education

Ph.D., DePaul University

Specialties

• Artificial intelligence
• Communicative AI
• Generative AI
• AI law and ethics
• Human-machine communication
• Philosophy of technology
• Web design and programming

Publications

Most Recent

• The Différance Engine: Large Language Models and Poststructuralisim. AI & Society. 2025.
• Cut the Crap: A Critical Response to ChatGPT is Bullshit. Ethics and Information Technology27(23). 2025.
• Duty Now and For the Future: Communication, Ethics and Artificial Intelligence. Journal of Media Ethics 3(4), 2023: 198-210.
• Beyond Ownership: Human-Robot Relationships Between Property and Personhood (with Marco Dehnert). New Media & Society, 2023.
• ChatGPT: Deconstructing the Debate and Moving it Forward (with Mark Coeckelbergh). AI & Society. 21 June 2023.

Books

• Hacking Cyberspace (Westview, 2001)
• Thinking Otherwise: Philosophy, Communication, Technology (Purdue Univ. Press, 2007)
• The Machine Question: Critical Perspectives on AI, Robots and Ethics (MIT Press, 2012)
• Heidegger and The Media (Polity Press, 2014)
• Of Remixology: Ethics & Aesthetics after Remix (MIT Press, 2016)
• Gaming the System: Deconstructing Video Games, Game Studies and Virtual Worlds (Indiana University Press, 2018)
• Robot Rights (MIT Press, 2018)
• How To Survive a Robot Invasion: Responsibility, Rights and AI (Routledge, 2019)
• An Introduction to Communication and Artificial Intelligence (Polity Press, 2020)
• Deconstruction (MIT Press, 2021)
• Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond (MIT Press, 2023)
• AI for Communication (Routledge, 2024)
• Communicative AI: A Critical Introduction to Large Language Models (Polity 2025)

Awards

• Web programmer and interactive media designer
• Researcher and author
• Educator:
  • Presidential Teaching Professor (2009)
  • Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (2006)