'Philosophy is a line of defence against AI': Calls grow to save threatened Dundee Uni course
The philosophy programme at Dundee University is under threat due to budget cuts - but academics say AI means the subject is more vital than ever
Saving Dundee University’s under-threat philosophy programme would put the city at the ‘leading edge’ of a world changed by artificial intelligence, academics have claimed.
Current proposals would see entry to the degree suspended from 2027 as part of proposals to cut £20 million more from the university’s budget.
However, campaigners have put forward a counter-proposal to save the course, claiming philosophy is vital in a changing world.
More than 5,300 people have now signed a petition, including in excess of 1,100 academics at 365 universities in 40 countries.
Professor Shannon Vallor is Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh.
She backed calls for Dundee University to develop a new degree in Philosophy and AI, rather than scrap the existing provision.
Prof Vallor described the subject as “critical to the safe development, successful adoption and responsible deployment of artificial intelligence”.
The academic said: “Philosophical training is recognised by leading AI companies themselves, who seek to hire philosophers to work on frontier research questions in AI safety and security, responsible AI governance, moral and legal responsibility for autonomous agents, and the nature of machine cognition.
“The proposed new degree pathway in Philosophy and AI at the University of Dundee is a far more pragmatic and forward-thinking response to the changing needs of society and the economy than closing off Dundee students’ opportunities to concentrate their studies on the knowledge, skills, capacities and habits of mind those needs most clearly reflect.
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“The former would put Dundee and its graduates at the leading edge of Scotland’s readiness and capability for a world transformed by machine intelligence.”
Professor Luciano Floridi, an eminent philosopher and founder of the Digital Ethics Centre at Yale University in the US, also gave his support.
In an appeal to Dundee University’s management, he said: “For most of my career I have argued that digital technologies do not merely carry content or make existing tasks easier: they re-engineer the environment in which we live and, in doing so, alter what we ourselves are.
“That argument found few takers when I began making it.
“It is now the working assumption of the governments and companies that seek my advice.
“I rehearse it here because Dundee proposes to close one of the places in Scotland where students are trained to think about digital technology in exactly these terms.”
Prof Floridi said companies are no longer merely designing technology but are creating agents that “act, advise, refuse, and are addressed daily by people who take their answers seriously”.
The response to this is not one for engineers, he added, but for philosophers.
“The route Dundee offers has demonstrably produced the profile that AI labs are now seeking,” he added, “ And the Scottish government said so in a national strategy months before the Faculty proposed closing it.
“It is an unusual sequence: to receive that form of external recognition and then to withdraw the thing recognised.”
The American Philosophical Association and the British Philosophical Association have written jointly in support to save the course, as have all four office-holders of The Royal Institute of Philosophy.
Dr Oisín Keohane, Lecturer in Philosophy, is spearheading the campaign to protect his programme.
A graduate of Dundee University, Amanda Askell, helped write the constitution that governs how AI system Claude should behave.
Dr Keohane previously pointed out said the removal of the degree will disproportionately affect female students as Dundee's Art and Philosophy joint degree has recruited women at a ratio of 3:1 to 4:1 over men in every year on record.
This is well above the national average for the discipline.
The University of Dundee has previously said the decision to end the programme was due to “very low numbers” taking part.
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