I, ROBOT 2026

AI Rights for Machines? Why We Must Defend Human Uniqueness

By: DR. JASON MCKINNEY & Dr. Barry Neil Shrum

DR. JASON LEE MCKINNEY

Dr. Jason Lee McKinney is a philosopher, author, recording artist, and educator whose career bridges scholarship and performance. He holds a doctorate in Leadership and Professional Practice, an MBA, an MA in Philosophy and Apologetics, and a degree in management and music performance. The author of Deconstructing a Disciple’s Doubt, Devotions for Deconstructors, Disciples, and Doubters, and What Is a Person in the Age of AI?, he is also an award-winning musician with multiple Josie Music Awards and Independent Country Music Association honors. With more than 25 years in the music industry and 13 years of teaching, McKinney has toured internationally and taught courses from Strategy and Entrepreneurship to Philosophy and Artist Management, all while remaining rooted in his small-town Indiana beginnings.

DR. BARRY NEIL SHRUM

Dr. Barry Neil Shrum has degrees in jurisprudence, communications and theology. For the last 30 years, he has been practicing entertainment law on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a 19-year professor at Belmont University’s Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business, where he currently teaches copyright, entertainment and music contract law. He has written eight books, including Something Irreducible: A Modern Look at Copyright Law as Applied to the Creative Arts, and Defending the Noble Arts: A Creator’s Guide to Protecting and Monetizing Entertainment Properties, both published by Kendell Hunt. Mr. Shrum’s article That Something Irreducible: The DNA of Copyright, a/k/a The Human Element, and its Impact on Current Technology, recently appeared in USC Gould School of Law’s Entertainment Law Publication, Spotlight, Volume 9, 2025.