Terse CV

Vincent C. Müller is AvH Professor for Philosophy and Ethics of AI and Director of the Centre for Philosophy and AI Research (PAIR) at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (6 post-docs, 6 pre-docs) - as well as Visiting Professor at TU Eindhoven, President of the European Society for Cognitive Systems, Chair of the Society for the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, and Chair of the euRobotics topics group on 'ethical, legal and socio-economic issues'. Previously, he was Professor at the Technical University of Eindhoven (2019-22) and at Anatolia College/ACT in Thessaloniki (1998-2019), Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute in London (2018-22), University Academic Fellow at the University of Leeds (2016-22), James Martin Research Fellow at the University of Oxford (2011-15) and Stanley J. Seeger Fellow at Princeton University (2005-6). Müller studied philosophy with cognitive science, linguistics and history at the universities of Marburg, Hamburg, London and Oxford.

Müller works mainly on philosophical problems connected to artificial intelligence, both in ethics and in theoretical philosophy. He organises a conference series on the Philosophy of AI (PT-AI/PhAI), and co-edits the journal Philosophy of AI. Müller edits the "Oxford handbook of the philosophy of artificial intelligence" (OUP), wrote the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Ethics of AI and Robotics and has a book forthcoming with OUP on "Can Machines Think?", as well as a book with CUP on "Artificial Minds" (with G. Löhr). His publications are cited >1.5/day. Müller was one of the 32 experts on the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) and he is a member of the OECD Network of Experts on AI. In 2022, he was awarded a personal science prize, "Alexander von Humboldt Professor", worth €3.5M, with a permanent professorship. Overall, he has generated ca. €12M individual research income for his institutions. Müller was awarded the 2025 Covey Award by IACAP for "a substantial record of innovative research in the field of computing and philosophy".

Main projects

• Transforming Human Rights, DFG Excellence Cluster (2026-32), €32M FAU - PI
• creAIte, Research Council of Norway (2025-28), €1M, €22k FAU - Co-I
• A. v. Humboldt Professor, personal grant (2022-27), €3.5M at FAU (+ ca. €1.5M from FAU) - PI
• k3i-cycling, BMBF (2020-25), €13.5M total, sub-project €273,000 at FAU - Co-I
• AI-Planner, TU/e & ESCF.nl (2022-25), sub-project €400K at TU/e - Co-I
• popAI, H2020-SU-AI-2020 CSA (2021-23), €1.6M (€88K at TU/e) - PI
• IA-AI, EC (2020-2023, ended 2021), €2.5M - PI
• ESDT, NWO (2020-2029), €26.8M (ca. €5M at TU/e) - Management Board & Co-I
• AI4EU, H2020 ICT-26-2018 (2019-2021), €20M (€141K at ULeeds) - Co-I
• INBOTS, H2020 ICT-28-2017-1 (2018-2020), €3M (€112K at ULeeds) - PI
• DiDIY, H2020 ICT-31-644344 (2014-2017), €2M (€230K at AC) - PI
• EUCogIII, FP7 INFSO-ICT-269981 (2012-2014), €2M (€1.64M at AC) - Coordinator & PI
• EUCogII, FP 7 INFSO-ICT-231281 (2009-2011), €1.8M (€1.7M at AC) - Coordinator & PI

Publications/Citations/Downloads

• My Publications page
• Google Scholar
• PhilPapers
• ResearchGate

Post-Docs

• Dr. Hadeel Naeem (2024-), FAU, "AI ethics epistemology" (PAIR Research Fellow)
• Dr. Brandon Ashby (2024-), FAU, "Sensory extension" (PAIR Research Fellow)
• Dr. Björn Lundgren (2024-), FAU, "AI Ethics" (PAIR Research Fellow)
• Dr. Ian Robertson (2024-), FAU, "Embodied Cognition and AI" (PAIR Research Fellow)
• Dr. Sascha B. Fink (2024-), FAU, "Philosophy of Mind and AI" (PAIR Director of Research)
• Dr. Leonard Dung (2023-24), FAU, "Artificial Consciousness" (PAIR Research Fellow)
• Dr. Aliya R. Dewey (2023-24), FAU, "Normativity in AI" (PAIR Research Fellow)
• Dr. Guido Löhr (2020-2023), TU/e, "Conceptual Change" (ESDiT project)
• Dr. Philippe Verreault-Julien (2021-2022), TU/e, "Opacity in AI" (EAISI project)
• Dr. Alexandre Erler (2014-2017), ACT, "Digitial Do-It-Yourself" (DiDIY project)

PhD Students (funded)

• Christian de Weerd (2024-), FAU, "Artificial Consciousness" (PAIR PhD Fellow) - co-supervisors Dr. Leonard Dung & Dr Brandon Ashby
• Ibifuro R. Jaja (2024-), FAU, "Political AI Ethics" (PAIR PhD Fellow) - co-supervisor Dr. Aliya Dewey & Dr. Hadeel Naeem
• Max Hellrigel-Holderbaum (2024-), FAU, "Instrumental Convergence and AI risk" (PAIR PhD Fellow) - co-supervisor Dr. Ian Robertson
• Eleonora Catena (2024-), FAU, "AI and Human Autonomy" (PAIR PhD Fellow) - co-supervisor Dr. Björn Lundgren
• Anthony Seaboyer (2024-), FAU, "Political Manipulation through AI" (External PAIR Member)
• Diego Hernán Morales Pérez (2022-), TU/e, "Automated Rational Choice With Normative Metacognition" (TU/e EAISI PhD Position) - co-supervisor Dr. Patrik Hummel
• Céline Budding (2021-), TU/e, "Cognitive Models for Explainable AI" (TU/e EAISI PhD Position) - co-supervisor Dr. Carlos Zednik
• Charlotte Stix (2019-2023), TU/e, "Ethical Theory for AI Policy" (Luxembourg PhD Fellowship)
• Gabriela Arriagada-Bruneau (2018-2024), U Leeds, "Bias and Fairness in Data Science" (Chile State PhD Scholarship) - supervised with Prof. Mark S. Gilthorpe & Dr. Rob Lawlor
• Michael Cannon (2018-2024), U Leeds & TU/e, "Superethical AI" (TU/e PhD position) - co-supervisor Dr. Elizabeth O'Neill

Areas of Current Research Activity
[see also Activities and Events and PAIR Research)]

• Ethics of AI & Computing
• Ethics & policy of artificial intelligence (see the SEP article)
• Robot ethics (I edit the PhilPapers section on"Robot Ethics)
• Surveillance and privacy
• Risks of digital manufacturing and synthetic biology
• Ethics of knowing, e.g. "Should there be forbidden knowledge?"

• Philosophy of Mind, Language & Computing:
• Introductory book "Can machines think?", forthcoming with OUP
• Editing the "Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence", forthcoming with OUP
• Conceptual and ethical challenges of progress towards human-level AI, esp. computationalism
• Benchmarking and testing of artificial intelligence (or cognitive ability in technical systems)
• Theory of computing, especially within the philosophy of mind: computationalism, hypercomputing, morphological computing, digital states, pancomputationalism
• Vagueness (in relation to categorisation and to computing)
• Putnam's concept of "conceptual relativity" and anti-realism in general