Seth Lazar is a philosopher at the Australian National University (Australian National University (ANU)) who works on AI ethics, the politics of AI, and democratic theory. He founded the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory (MINT) Lab at ANU.
Work on AI ethics
Lazar is the author of Anticipatory AI Ethics (Knight Columbia, May 1, 2026), the essay that names and defends the technological horizon as a constraint on anticipatory AI ethics (Anticipatory AI Ethics (Lazar, Knight Columbia, May 1 2026); see Anticipatory AI Ethics (Lazar framework, including the Technological Horizon)). The framework advances conditional hazard and opportunity identification as the methodological frame for anticipatory work. Lazar's earlier essay with Nelson (2023) applied anticipatory ethics to bioethics as a companion treatment.
His prior research cited in Anticipatory AI Ethics addresses platform power and agentic AI. This includes Lazar et al. (2024) on platform power and agentic AI; Chan et al. (2025), co-authored work on agentic AI; and Kapoor et al. (2025) on the platform economy and agentic AI, co-authored with Sayash Kapoor and Arvind Narayanan. Lazar's work engages with the AI as Normal Technology framing (Narayanan-Kapoor 2025) and with AI Existential Risk discourse.
Relationships
- affiliated-with: Australian National University (ANU), Knight First Amendment Institute (Knight Columbia) (Knight Columbia 2026 symposium author)
- co-author-with: Sayash Kapoor, Arvind Narayanan (Kapoor et al. 2025)
- engaged-with: AI as Normal Technology (Narayanan-Kapoor 2025), AI Existential Risk discourse
- author-of: Anticipatory AI Ethics (Lazar, Knight Columbia, May 1 2026)
- supports: Anticipatory AI Ethics (Lazar framework, including the Technological Horizon), Anticipatory AI Ethics (Lazar framework, including the Technological Horizon)