Professor Vincent C Müller

Profile

I am an AvH Professor for Philosophy and Ethics of AI and Director of the Centre for Philosophy and AI Research (PAIR) at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg – as well as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Leeds, Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute (London), President of the European Society for Cognitive Systems and Chair of the ​​​​​​ euRobotics topics group on 'ethical, legal and socio-economic issues'.

I was Professor at the Technical University of Eindhoven (2019–22) and at Anatolia College/ACT (Thessaloniki) (1998–2019), as well as James Martin Research Fellow at the University of Oxford (2011–15) and Stanley J. Seeger Fellow at Princeton University (2005–6). I studied philosophy with cognitive science, linguistics and history at the universities of Marburg, Hamburg, London and Oxford.

Research interests

I work mainly on philosophical problems connected to artificial intelligence, both in ethics and in theoretical philosophy. My publications are cited >1/day. I edit the "Oxford handbook of the philosophy of artificial intelligence" (OUP), previously wrote the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Ethics of AI and Robotics and also have a book forthcoming with OUP on "Can Machines Think?", as well as a book with CUP on "Artificial Minds".

I frequently present invited talks around the world and I have also organised ca. 25 conferences or workshops, among them a prominent conference series on the Philosophy and Theory of AI (PT-AI). Currently, I am Co-I and on the Management Board on the NWO project "Ethics of Disruptive Technologies" (26.8M€); I am one of the 32 experts on the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) and I am a member of the OECD Network of Experts on AI. In 2022, I was awarded the personal science prize "Alexander von Humboldt Professor", worth €3.5M, together with a professorship and matching funds from the university (ca. €1.5M). I have generated ca. €8.8M research income for my institutions.

Main projects

• A.v. Humboldt Professor, AvH Foundation personal grant, (2022–27), €3.5M (+ ca. €1.5M matching funds) – PI
• k3i-cycling, BMBF (2020–25), €13.5M total. Sub-project on AI ethics, €273,000 - Co-I (PI Andreas Maier)
• AI-Planner, TU/e & ESCF.nl, (2022–25), €400K (my sub-project) – Co-I
• popAI, H2020-SU-AI-2020 CSA, (2021–23), €1.6M (€88K at TU/e) – PI
• IA-AI, EC (2020-2023, ended 2021, now InTouch.eu), €2.5M – PI
• ESDT, NWO (2020–2029), €26.8M (ca. €5M at TU/e) – Co-I
• AI4EU, H2020 ICT-26-2018 (2019–2021), €20M (€141K at ULeeds) – Co-I
• INBOTS, H2020 ICT-28-2017-1 (2018–2020), €3M (€112K at ULeeds) – PI
• DiDIY, H2020 ICT-31-644344 (2014–2017), €2M (€230K at AC) – PI
• EUCogIII, FP7 INFSO-ICT-269981 (2012–2014), €2M (€1.64M at AC) – PI and Coordinator
• EUCogII, FP 7 INFSO-ICT-231281 (2009–2011), €1.8M (€1.7M at AC) – PI and Coordinator

Publications/Citations/Downloads

• My Publications page
• Google Scholar
• PhilPapers
• ResearchGate

Post-Docs

• Guido Löhr (2020–), TU/e, "Conceptual Change" (ESDT project)
• Philippe Verreault-Julien (2021–), TU/e, "Opacity in AI" (EAISI project)

PhD Students

• Diego Hernán Morales Pérez (2022–), TU/e, "Improving Automated Rational Choice Through Metacognition" (TU/e EAISI PhD Position, "Project: AI Planner of the Future") – daily supervisor Patrik Hummel
• Céline Budding (2021–), TU/e, "Cognitive Models for Explainable AI" (TU/e EAISI PhD Position) – daily supervisor Carlos Zednik
• Charlotte Stix (2019–), TU/e, "Ethical Theory for AI Policy" (Luxembourg PhD Fellowship)
• Gabriela Arriagada-Bruneau (2018–), U Leeds, "Bias and Fairness in Data Science" (Chile State PhD Scholarship) – supervised with Mark S. Gilthorpe
• Michael Cannon (2018–), TU/e, "Superethical AI" (TU/e PhD position)

Areas of Current Research Activity (see also Activities and Events)

I am trying to work on a number of things and if you are working on similar matters, I should be glad to hear from you. (This also applies to potential PhD students.)

Ethics of information and computing

• Ethics and policy of artificial intelligence (see the SEP article)
• Robot ethics (I edit the PhilPapers section on"Robot Ethics)
• Surveillance and privacy
• Risks of digital manufacturing and synthetic biology
• Ethics of knowing, e.g. "Should there be forbidden knowledge?"

Philosophy of mind, language and computing

• Introductory book "Can machines think?", forthcoming with OUP
• Editing the "Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence", forthcoming with OUP
• Conceptual and ethical challenges of progress towards human-level AI, esp. computationalism
• Benchmarking and testing of artificial intelligence (or cognitive ability in technical systems)
• Theory of computing, especially within the philosophy of mind: computationalism, hypercomputing, morphological computing, digital states, pancomputationalism
• Vagueness (in relation to categorisation and to computing)
• Putnam's concept of "conceptual relativity" and anti-realism in general

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Research groups and institutes

• Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data
• Philosophy

Current postgraduate researchers

• Gabriela Arriagada Bruneau

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>