People

Team Retreat, Waischenfeld, January 2024
[Elke Bennewitz, Eleonora Catena, Björn Lundgren, Leonard Dung, Christian de Weerd]
[Max Hellrigel-Holderbaum, Aliya Dewey, Ian Robertson, Vincent C. Müller, Ibifuro Jaja, Sascha B. Fink]

Director

Vincent C. Müller is AvH Professor for Philosophy and Ethics of AI and Director of the Centre for Philosophy and AI Research (PAIR) at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg – as well as Visiting Professor at TU Eindhoven, President of the European Society for Cognitive Systems, Chair of the Society for the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence’, and Chair of the euRobotics topics group on ‘ethical, legal and socio-economic issues’. Previously, he was Professor at the Technical University of Eindhoven (2019-22) and at Anatolia College/ACT (Thessaloniki) (1998-2019), Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute in London (2018-22), University Academic Fellow at the IDEA Centre at the University of Leeds (2016-22), James Martin Research Fellow at the University of Oxford (2011-15) and Stanley J. Seeger Fellow at Princeton University (2005-6). Müller studied philosophy with cognitive science, linguistics and history at the universities of Marburg, Hamburg, London and Oxford. Müller works mainly on philosophical problems connected to artificial intelligence, both in ethics and in theoretical philosophy. He organises a conference series on the Philosophy of AI (PT-AI/PhAI), co-edits the journal Philosophy of AI and co-founded the Society for the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Email address: vincent.c.mueller@fau.de

 

 

Secretariat

 

Director of Research

Before joining PAIR as Director of Research, Sascha has been Juniorprofessor for Neurophilosophy at Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg and a member of its Centre for Behavioral Brain Sciences. His work focuses on foundations of the mind sciences, from neural correlates of consciousness to the ways in which minds are manipulated (like pharmacological interventions or interactions with new technological devices). In the context of PAIR, an assessment of epistemic risks for cases of “sensory engineering”, where AI and machine learning based methods manipulate our sensory experiences, is particularly relevant. Currently, he works as an editor-in-chief of the journal “Philosophy and the Mind Sciences”, heralds the dawn of a sustainable diamond open access utopia, and is active in several international research consortia on psychedelics (PsychedELSI and PsyTrans), sensory engineering (SENSOR) and pain (COMPAIN). Email address: sascha.fink@fau.de

 

 

Research Fellows (Post-Docs)

Brandon Ashby works in the philosophy of perception, consciousness, and cognitive science. He is interested in the structure of perceptual consciousness, broadly construed. He argues that one sort of structure that consciousness has is a grammatical or syntactic structure. His work is informed by research in cognitive neuroscience and machine learning. He also maintains interests in core cognition, primatology, the epistemology of value, and the philosophy of disability. He is currently part of the SENSOR project on sensory extension. Email address: brandon.j.ashby@fau.de

 

 

 

 

Björn Lundgren received his PhD 2018 from the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) and has since worked at various institutions such as the Institute for Futures Studies, Umeå University, and Utrecht University, on projects ranging from information ethics and risks, to ethics of artificial intelligence and methodological questions of doing philosophy and ethics (of technology) in particular. At PAIR, Lundgren is continuing his work on AI ethics, broadly speaking, but with a focus on aspects relating to information ethics and methods of doing AI ethics. Email address: bjorn.lundgren@fau.de

Hadeel Naeem works in epistemology and the philosophy of mind. Hadeel is exploring how we can responsibly use AI systems to further our epistemic goals. As part of the COMPAIN project, Hadeel will also investigate the complexities of pain. Email address: hadeel.naeem@fau.de

 

 

 

 

Robertson’s primary research interests intersect epistemology and the philosophy of cognitive science. He is presently focussed on characterising how the way we learn from AI structurally parallels with the way we learn from human experts. In this way, Robertson interrogates AI integration from the vantage point of social epistemology. Email address: ian.george.robertson@fau.de

 

 

 

 

Doctoral Researchers (PhD Students)

Eleonora Catena studied philosophy and political science at the univeristies of Rome and Milan. Her interests include various ethical fields (bioethics, animal ethics, AI ethics), as well as moral and political philosophy. At PAIR she is pursuing a PhD with a project on the philosophical and ethical challenges of AI for human autonomy. Email address: eleonora.catena@fau.de

 

 

 

 

 

Miriam’s PhD project focuses on the question of whether we have moral obligations towards AI. Her argument is that in order for an AI system to be a proper object of our moral concern, the system must have certain kinds of interest. To explain what these interests are and how they might be identified, she draws systematic comparisons with animal ethics and cognition. Before joining PAIR, Miriam was a PhD student at the Schaufler Kolleg@TU Dresden.  Email address: miriam.gorr@fau.de 

 

 

 

 

Max focuses on risks from AI systems. Presently, he examines concepts that are often invoked but rarely scrutinized in this context (such as goals, agency, manipulation, planning) and seeks to contribute to a more informed understanding of AI-associated risks. Previously, he studied philosophy, political science and neuroscience in Frankfurt and Berlin. Email address: max.hellrigel-holderbaum@fau.de

 

 

 

 

Ibifuro works on AI governance. Currently, she investigates EU’s AI policies and explores how the regulations balance innovation with ethical considerations as well as their implications for global AI development and governance. Previously, she studied philosophy and peace and conflict studies at University of Uyo and Rivers State University in Nigeria. Email address: Ibifuro.jaja@fau.de

Anthony teaches Political Science and Political Philosophy at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) and Info Ops, PSYOPS and adversary information exploitation at the Peace Support Training Centre (PSTC). He researches the effects of AI exploitation for influence and disinformation on democracies at the Centre for Philosophy and AI Research (PAIR). He testifies as expert witness to parliamentary committees such as the National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs Senate Committee on AI-enabled foreign influence and disinformation operations as well as on how to defend against adversary information attacks. His research focuses on national security, AI exploitation for information warfare, disinformation, social influence, PSYOPS, MILDEC, and information warfare of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and armed non-state actors as well as effects of the weaponization of information on democracies. He has been awarded over 50 research grants. Anthony is CTV News Channel’s National Security Expert and is also a contracted CBC Network commentator on National Security as well as is a contributor to the Toronto Star newspaper. He appears also on international media such as the BBC and Al Jazeera. He has advised government institutions, parliamentary committees and politicians in Canada, the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain and Australia as well as NATO and OSCE committees. He held positions at the Queen’s Centre for International Relations, the German Council on Foreign Relations, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, the Free University of Berlin, the University of Bonn and the German Bundestag. Email address: tonyseaboyer@gmail.com

 

Christian de Weerd                           Email address: christian.de.weerd@fau.de

 

Members Associated With Specific Research Projects

Visiting Fellows & Academic Visitors

  • Riccardo Volpato (U Glasgow), 11/2024

Alumni Members

Affiliate FAU Faculty

Interns