
Professor Vincent C Müller
- Position: Visiting Fellow
- Areas of expertise: Philosophy and ethics of AI; philosophy of language; philosophy of mind
- Email: V.C.Mueller@leeds.ac.uk
- Location: 17, Blenheim Terrace, LS2 9JT
- Website: Professional Website | Twitter | Googlescholar | Researchgate | ORCID
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
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
Research groups and institutes
- Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data
- Philosophy