LSE announces new Global Priorities Research Group
LSE is creating a new research group dedicated to the study of ethical prioritisation.
The Global Priorities Research Group (GPRG), hosted by LSE’s Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS), will pursue philosophical research designed to help individuals and institutions decide how they should allocate scarce resources to realise the best outcomes for humanity and the wider world.
Large scale challenges
GPRG will put particular emphasis on philosophical research that helps us navigate the largest-scale challenges associated with the impacts of transformative AI. It will also consider how we should compare and weight the interests of different kinds of beings - be they human, animal, or perhaps even artificial - as well as pursuing foundational research on issues related to value and rational choice with the potential to reorient our priorities across a wide range of issues.
The group will be led by Dr Andreas L. Mogensen, who joins LSE from Oxford University. His research has covered topics including evolutionary debunking arguments in ethics, effective altruism and the demands of beneficence, decision-making under deep uncertainty, and population ethics. His current work focuses on the potential for mind and moral standing in AI systems. Dr Mogensen is joined by Dr Teruji Thomas, whose research focuses on topics in population ethics, decision theory, and formal epistemology. In the coming year, GPRG will appoint two postdoctoral researchers.
Addressing ethical questions
Commenting on the announcement, Dr Lewis Ross, CPNSS Director, said,
“We are delighted to welcome Dr Mogensen, Dr Thomas, and their new group to CPNSS and the wider philosophical community at the School.
“The new Global Priorities Research Group (GPRG) will address some of the most pressing ethical questions confronting the world at this moment of profound social change. It is a time when philosophical thinking about morality, risk, transformative technology, and the future of society is urgently needed. Andreas and Teru are philosophers of the highest calibre, and we’re excited to support them to build a team of world-leading researchers with us at CPNSS and LSE.”