The complex and rapidly changing impact of new technologies on human moral and intellectual capabilities and virtues of character.
Shannon Vallor
Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence
Director, Centre for Technomoral Futures
Research Areas of Expertise:
Data Ethics, AI Ethics, Ethics of Robotics, Ethics of Social Media, Applied Virtue Ethics, Philosophy of Science and Technology
Research Summary: Professor Vallor’s research addresses the complex and rapidly changing impact of new technologies on human moral and intellectual capabilities and virtues of character. She is particularly interested in the impact of AI-driven automation on the cultivation and expression of our moral and intellectual habits, judgment, and wisdom, as well as our relationships and practices of mutual care. She also explores the intercultural dimensions of human moral development and understanding, and how these intersect with new technologies of global reach and cultural impact.
Funded Research Projects (Active):
Making Systems Answer: Dialogical Design as a Bridge for Responsibility Gaps in Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (Principal Investigator) UKRI EPSRC funded £689,891, January 2022-June 2024
Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Governance and Regulation: Better Governance by Design (co-Investigator) UKRI EPSRC funded £3.2m, Nov 2020-April 2024
Summer Institute in Technology Ethics (Principal Investigator) Templeton World Charity Foundation Diverse Intelligences grant of $234,000. January 2020-February 2023
Key Publications (monographs):
The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking. (Oxford University Press, upcoming) 🔗
Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting (Oxford University Press, 2016)
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Technology, editor. (Oxford University Press, 2022)
Key Publications (journal articles and book chapters):
“Artificial intelligence and the imperative of responsibility: reconceiving AI governance as social care.” (Vallor, Shannon and Ganesh, Bhargavi), In Kiener, M. (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Responsibility. New York (2023): Routledge, 395-406. 🔗
“Moral Machines: From Value Alignment to Embodied Virtue.” (co-authored with Wendell Wallach) in Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, Matthew Liao, ed. (New York: OUP, 2020), 383-412.
“AI and the Automation of Wisdom.” In Philosophy and Computing: Essays in Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, Logic, and Ethics, Thomas M. Powers, ed. (Cham: Springer, 2017), 161-178.
“Moral Deskilling and Upskilling in a New Machine Age: Reflections on the Ambiguous Future of Character,” Philosophy &Technology 28 (2015), 107-124.
“Flourishing on Facebook: Virtue Friendship and New Social Media.” Ethics and Information Technology, 14(3) (2012), 185-199.
“Carebots and Caregivers: Sustaining the Ethical Ideal of Care in the 21st Century.” Philosophy & Technology 24:3 (2011), 251-268. Reprinted in Machine Ethics and Robot Ethics, Wendell Wallach and Peter Asaro, eds. (New York: Ashgate, 2016)
“Knowing What to Wish For: Human Enhancement Technology, Dignity and Virtue.” Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 15:2 (2011), 82-100.