Dr Linda Eggert named AI2050 Early Career Fellow by Schmidt Sciences

The AI2050 Early Career Fellows are a part of the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Institute at Schmidt Sciences, which supports fundamental research in AI, the application of AI and data science across a wide variety of disciplines, and the creation of high-impact research platforms that can speed discovery.

Dr Linda Eggert, Early Career Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oxford said:

‘This Fellowship is an exciting opportunity to bring normative analysis to bear on pressing issues of public concern, and it’s a tremendous honour to work with, and learn from, such an inspiring group of Fellows. Through my work in philosophy, I hope to contribute to clarifying and, in collaboration with others, resolving some of the challenges that affect us all.’ 

Dr Eggert’s work spans issues in moral, political, and legal philosophy. Linda is especially interested in non-consequentialist ethics, the ethics of rescue and defensive harming, theories of justice, and, inescapably, the relationship between human rights, democracy, and the moral and political implications of AI.

Through this fellowship, Linda will advance her project “The Ethics of Delegating to AI”, which seeks to help us better understand what, if anything, of moral significance is lost in eliminating human decision-makers in central areas of human activity, and what we owe to one another, including as citizens of liberal democracies, as AI is made increasingly more powerful and prevalent.

Conceived and co-chaired by Eric Schmidt and James Manyika, AI2050 advances Eric and Wendy Schmidt’s $125 million commitment over five years to identify and support talented individuals seeking solutions to ensure society benefits from AI. The AI2050 Early Career Fellowship encourages young researchers to pursue bold and ambitious work on difficult challenges as well as promising opportunities in AI, which often involves research that is multidisciplinary, risky, and hard to fund through traditional means.

Within their research, each fellow will contend with the central motivating question of AI2050:

It’s 2050. AI has turned out to be hugely beneficial to society. What happened? What are the most important problems we solved and the opportunities and possibilities we realized to ensure this outcome?

‘Modern AI systems are rapidly scaling in both capabilities and impact, with the potential to unlock profound discoveries,” said Eric Schmidt, co-founder, with his wife Wendy, of Schmidt Sciences and AI2050 co-chair. “These AI2050 Early Career Fellows will tackle challenging issues in AI to uphold safety, reliability, and promising benefits for humanity.

AI2050 has allocated up to $5.5 million to support the 2023 cohort of Early Career Fellows in their multidisciplinary efforts to advance work on the Hard Problems in AI. Fellows will join the Schmidt Sciences network of experts to advance their AI research in fields including computer science, economics, political science, and philosophy.