Taylor Olson

Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Iowa

| | CV | taylolson@uiowa.edu

Northwestern University

PhD, Computer Science (AI & Cognitive Science)

MS, Computer Science

University of Northern Iowa

BS, Computer Science

BA, Mathematics

Minor, Philosophy

Theoretical Machine Ethics

Trying to understand morality and build AI systems that are moral (Artificial Moral Agents, or AMAs).

Doing so mathematically:

  • Formalizing moral and epistemological theories;
  • Building formalisms for learning normative concepts;
  • Extending deontic, temporal, action, etc. logics.

My dissertation A Formal Theory of Norms presented a mathematical formalism modeling the ability to learn and adapt to the norms of a population while staying grounded in moral principles. In other words... it does as the Romans believe it should do, unless (for example) the Romans believe it should slaughter babies. This work was done under advisement of Ken Forbus at Northwestern University and committee members Kyla Ebels-Duggan (Philosophy, Northwestern University), Ian Horswill (Computer Science, Northwestern University), Francesca Rossi (AI Ethics Global Leader, IBM).

Teaching

Fall

Machine Ethics Seminar

Spring

Intro to AI

Publications