Vincent C. Müller

Vincent C. Müller is 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 Visiting Professor at TU Eindhoven, 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'. He 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). 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. His publications are cited >1/day. Müller edits the "Oxford handbook of the philosophy of artificial intelligence" (OUP), wrote the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Ethics of AI and Robotics and has a book forthcoming with OUP on "Can Machines Think?", as well as a book with CUP on "Artificial Minds" (with G. Löhr). He frequently presents invited talks around the world and he has organised ca. 25 conferences or workshops, among them a prominent conference series on the Philosophy and Theory of AI (PT-AI). Currently, Müller is one of the 32 experts on the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) and he is a member of the OECD Network of Experts on AI. In 2022, he 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). He has generated ca. €9.8M research income for his institutions.

Main projects

• A. v. Humboldt Professor, personal grant (2022-27), €3.5M at FAU (+ ca. €1.5M from FAU) - PI
• k3i-cycling, BMBF (2020-25), €13.5M total, sub-project €273,000 at FAU - Co-I
• AI-Planner, TU/e & ESCF.nl (2022-25), sub-project €400K at TU/e - Co-I
• popAI, H2020-SU-AI-2020 CSA (2021-23), €1.6M (€88K at TU/e) - PI
• IA-AI, EC (2020-2023, ended 2021), €2.5M - PI
• ESDT, NWO (2020-2029), €26.8M (ca. €5M at TU/e) - Management Board & 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) - Coordinator & PI
• EUCogII, FP 7 INFSO-ICT-231281 (2009-2011), €1.8M (€1.7M at AC) - Coordinator & PI

Publications/Citations/Downloads

• My Publications page
• Google Scholar
• PhilPapers
• ResearchGate

Post-Docs

• Leonard Dung (2023-), FAU, "Consciousness in AI" (PAIR Research Fellow)
• Aliya R. Dewey (2023-), FAU, "Normativity in AI" (PAIR Research Fellow)
• Guido Löhr (2020-2023), TU/e, "Conceptual Change" (ESDT project)
• Philippe Verreault-Julien (2021-2022), 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) - 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 (2019-2023), TU/e, "Ethical Theory for AI Policy" (Luxembourg PhD Fellowship)
• Gabriela Arriagada-Bruneau (2018-2023[?]), U Leeds, "Bias and Fairness in Data Science" (Chile State PhD Scholarship) - supervised with Mark S. Gilthorpe
• Michael Cannon (2018-2023[?]), TU/e, "Superethical AI" (TU/e PhD position)

Areas of Current Research Activity [see also Activities and Events]

Ethics of AI & Computing

• Ethics & 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 & 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