PHILIPP KORALUS

McCord Professor of Philosophy and AI

Director, HAI Lab

Institute for Ethics in AI

University of Oxford​

Ph.D. (Philosophy and Neuroscience) Princeton University 

B.A. Pomona College 

​

I work on the human capacity for reasoning and decision-making, and how it relates to artificial agents and large language models like GPT. My recent book Reason and Inquiry presents a theory of this capacity and its two-faced nature: On the one hand, we are subject to systematic fallacies and framing effects, empirically documented in psychology and behavioural economics. On the other hand, we largely get things right and are capable of incredible feats of rationality. AI that is trained on humans shows similar patterns and I believe that both AI and human psychology require us to look beyond probability theory and logic. I argue that reason aims at resolving issues or answering questions as directly as possible, and if we are inquisitive enough in the process, we can get the kind of rationality required for science, philosophy, and classical economic agents as a special case. I am also interested moral judgment and in definitions of intelligence, both in humans and in AI. I regularly collaborate with computer scientists on these topics. I have also had many past collaborations with colleagues from psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and environmental systems. Many of these themes will be central to the new Human-Centered AI Lab (HAI Lab) which I will direct in Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI, launching Fall 2024.

[CV]

​