Engaging with issues of automation and the rule of law, human dignity and the denial of reasoned explanations for autonomous decisions, and balancing human judgment, AI proficiency and overall safety.
John Zerilli
Chancellor’s Fellow (Assistant Professor) in AI, Data, and the Rule of Law
Research Areas of Expertise:
Philosophy, Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, Law
Research Summary:
John Zerilli is a philosopher with interests in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and the law. He is the Chancellor’s Fellow (Assistant Professor) in AI, Data, and the Rule of Law at the University of Edinburgh, a Research Associate in the Oxford Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, and an Associate Fellow in the Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. Before taking up his current post, he was a Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Oxford. He was also called to the Sydney bar in 2011. His published work appears in such journals as Philosophy of Science, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and Synthese. His two most recent books are The Adaptable Mind (Oxford University Press, 2020) and A Citizen's Guide to Artificial Intelligence (MIT Press, 2021).
Key Publications:
Journal Articles:
2023. Process rights and the automation of public services through AI: The case of the liberal state. Just Security Oct. 26.
2022. A tale of two histories: Dual-system architectures in modular perspective. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 46: 64-66.
2022. How transparency modulates trust in artificial intelligence (as lead author, with: Bhatt, U. & Weller, A.). Patterns 3: 1-10.
2021. Should we be concerned that the decisions of AIs are inscrutable? Psyche Jun. 14.
2020. Explaining machine learning decisions. Philosophy of Science 89(1): 1-19.
2019. Neural redundancy and its relation to neural reuse. Philosophy of Science 86(5): 1191-1201.
2019. Algorithmic decision-making and the control problem (as lead author, with: Knott, A., Maclaurin, J. & Gavaghan, C.). Minds and Machines 29(4): 555-578.
2019. The use of algorithms in the New Zealand public sector: A preliminary assessment (with: Liddicoat, J., Gavaghan, C., Knott, A. & Maclaurin, J.). New Zealand Law Journal [2019]: 26-30.
2018. Neural reuse and the modularity of mind: Where to next for modularity? Biological Theory 14(1): 1-20.
2018. Transparency in algorithmic and human decision-making: Is there a double standard? (as lead author, with: Knott, A., Maclaurin, J. & Gavaghan, C.). Philosophy and Technology 32(4): 661-683.
2017. Multiple realization and the commensurability of taxonomies. Synthese 196(8): 3337- 3353.
2017. Against the “system” module. Philosophical Psychology 30(3): 235-250.
Book Chapters:
2023. Is AI ethics all fluff? In: AI moralily, ed. D. Edmonds. New York: Oxford University Press.
2022. Appropriation of personality in the era of deepfakes. In: The Cambridge handbook of private law and AI, ed. P. Morgan & E. Lim. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2020. Algorithmic sentencing: Drawing lessons from Human Factors research. In: Sentencing and artificial intelligence, ed. J. Ryberg & J. Roberts, pp. 165-183. New York: Oxford University Press.
2020. Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Technical considerations (as lead author, with: Weller, A.). In: The law of artificial intelligence, ed. M. Hervey & M. Lavy, pp. 7-30. London: Thomson Reuters/Sweet & Maxwell.
Books:
2024. Contemporary debates in the ethics of artificial intelligence (as co-editor, with: Nyholm, S. & Kasirzadeh, A.). Wiley Blackwell (under contract).
2021. A citizen’s guide to artificial intelligence (as lead author, with: Danaher, J. et al.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (reviewed in Forbes, Physics World and Popular Science UK).
2020. The adaptable mind: What neuroplasticity and neural reuse tell us about language and cognition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Reviews and Notices:
2022. From dualism to deism: A philosopher comes full circle. Science 375(6580): 503.
2022. Review of Chesterman’s We, the robots. Sydney Law Review 44(3): 499-502.
2014. A minimalist framework for comparative psychology. Biology and Philosophy 29(6): 897-904.
Reports:
2023. Automation bias and procedural fairness: A short guide for the UK civil service (as lead author, with: Goñi, I. & Masetti Placci, M.). Edinburgh: BRAID.
2019. Government use of artificial intelligence in New Zealand (with: Gavaghan, C., Knott, A., Maclaurin, J. & Liddicoat, J.). Wellington: New Zealand Law Foundation.