I am Assistant Professor at the University of Cambridge and Course Leader developing and deploying the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence's new MPhil in the Ethics of AI, Data and Algorithms.
My previous position was as Research Fellow on the Humanising Machine Intelligence Grand Challenge project at the Australian National University (where I was awarded the John Vincent Fellowship). I completed my first post-doctoral fellowship at the Polonsky Academy of Advanced Study at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, after having received my PhD from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in 2014.
My main areas of res…
I am Assistant Professor at the University of Cambridge and Course Leader developing and deploying the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence's new MPhil in the Ethics of AI, Data and Algorithms.
My previous position was as Research Fellow on the Humanising Machine Intelligence Grand Challenge project at the Australian National University (where I was awarded the John Vincent Fellowship). I completed my first post-doctoral fellowship at the Polonsky Academy of Advanced Study at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, after having received my PhD from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in 2014.
My main areas of research are ethics, both normative and applied, and the philosophy of technology. My approach to AI ethics is two-fold: to use the questions, puzzles and problems emerging technology raises to make first-order, foundational contributions to normative theory and to reflect this philosophical progress back to make concrete suggestions for the design and deployment of more ethical technological systems in both policy and industry settings.
I also have a strong research interest in the actions that lies between what is impermissible and what is required. My focus to date has been on supererogation. Supererogatory actions are those that go above and beyond the call of duty. In my work on supererogation, I examine both the conditions that an act must meet to be counted as supererogatory as well as the value of including this class of normative action in our ethical theories. Often overlooked in the traditional ethical discussions of liars, murderers, promise-breakers and thieves, I focus on the wonderfully positive side of our moral lives and encourage us all to take more seriously those modest gift-givers, blood-donors, saints and heroes who similarly populate our moral world.
For further information, feel free to email me at [email protected] or see my website at www.clairebenn.wordpress.com