Bloomsbury announces the publication of Kant Machine (2026), a major new work by Yuk Hui, Professor of Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Chair of Human Conditions. In this timely and provocative study, Hui rethinks the philosophy of Immanuel Kant in the age of artificial intelligence.
Kant Machine explores fundamental questions at the intersection of philosophy and contemporary technology: What could be called an intelligent machine? Are machines capable of being moral? Does an algorithm for perpetual peace exist? Hui demonstrates how current debates on AI echo longstanding philosophical tensions between rationalism and empiricism, positioning Kant’s transcendental idealism as a crucial framework for understanding the ethical and political implications of AI and robotics.
Drawing on a rich intellectual history, Hui repositions critical philosophy in our new historical context by reading Kant in parallel with Turing, Gödel, Wiener, Solomonoff, Minsky, McCarthy, Newell, Hinton, Bengio, LeCun, among many other pioneers in AI. The result is an original contribution that reframes how we think about machine intelligence, AI alignment, and the metaphysics of machines.
Yuk Hui is widely recognized for his influential work on digital technology, automation, and cosmotechnics. He studied computer engineering at the University of Hong Kong and completed his PhD under Bernard Stiegler at Goldsmiths, University of London. His previous books include On the Existence of Digital Objects (2016), The Question Concerning Technology in China (2016), Recursivity and Contingency (2019), Art and Cosmotechnics (2021), Post-Europe (2024), and Machine and Sovereignty (2024). His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
With Kant Machine, Hui offers an essential critical perspective for readers in philosophy, AI studies, and digital technology, providing new tools for understanding the promises and limits of contemporary intelligent systems.
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