Anthropic · Google · Sam Altman · Claude · The Atlantic Technology
Someone Finally Wants to Hire Philosophers
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Philosophy has long suffered an unfortunate reputation as pedantic and abstruse.
Key facts
- In 2024, the American Philosophical Association announced two new annual $10,000 prizes for scholars working on questions related to AI
- Arizona State University hopes to launch an AI-and-philosophy major in 2027, which will emphasize the study of consciousness and AI ethics
- D.s: One recent notice from “a top AI research lab” offers up to $60 an hour for experts willing to leverage their “philosophy expertise” to develop “AI-driven philosophical workflows
- In 2013, 1 percent of roles on PhilJobs, the field’s primary job board, were related to the technology
Summary
Paul Graham, the legendary tech investor, studied philosophy as a college student, which seemed “an impressively impractical thing to do,” as he later wrote. Like Graham, the field of philosophy has lately turned its attention to AI. In 2013, 1 percent of roles on PhilJobs, the field’s primary job board, were related to the technology. In some ways, it is philosophers who got them into this AI mess in the first place. And the Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom’s 2014 book, Superintelligence, helped bring attention to the potential dangers of all-powerful AI. But the two disciplines have never been as entangled as they are now. Perhaps the most philosophy-drunk of the major AI firms is Anthropic.