Dr Paula Sweeney

Biography

Paula Sweeney is a senior lecturer in Philosophy. She joined the University of Aberdeen in 2009. Prior to that she completed her PhD at the University of St Andrews under the supervision of Crispin Wright. 

Paula was the Head of the School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History from 2017-2022.

Paula's academic background is in the Philosophy of Language and the Philosophy of Logic.  Now she works in the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, particularly regarding AI avatars and social robots. 

External Memberships

In recent years Paula has been a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, an elected board member of the British Philosophical Association and an appointed trustee of the trust associated with Thought: A Journal of Philosophy. 

She is an external examiner at Lancaster University and the University of St Andrews.

Prizes and Awards

Paula was co-investigator on the Leverhulme Trust funded project, Relativism and Rational Tolerance, with Professor Crispin Wright. 

Research Overview

I am an analytic philosopher who is interested in the Philosophy of AI, particularly the philosophy of social robots and AI avatars. Some of the questions that interest me are ethical but I am also interested in the traditional questions of philosophy, reconsidered in light of social AI technologies. 

Current Research

Most recently I have been working on AI Avatars--particularly avatars that seek to represent or 'duplicate' real-life individuals. I have a number of publications in this area, some exploring use cases and others exploring more abstract philosophical questions such as the impact of personal avatars on the value of personhood and uniqueness. 

My research on avatars builds on my work on social robots. My monograph, Social Robots: A Fictional Dualism modal was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2023. The monograph is a book-length study of my theory of social robots. The theory proposes that when we engage with social robots the emotional response that we have is closer in kind to the response that we have towards fiction than it is to how we respond to persons. 

Please see the Publications tab for more of my research. 

Funding and Grants

I was a co-investigator on the Leverhulme funded Relativism and Rational Tolerance (£250K). 

Teaching Responsibilities

Undergraduate Teaching

Philosophy of Virtual Worlds

Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

Persons and the Self

Masters Teaching

Legal and Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence.

Philosophy and Society