ANU Philosophy

Welcome to the newest Senior Lecturer in the school, Daniel Muñoz. A moral philosopher, Daniel joins us from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

This week, Colin Klein discussed AI sentience and ethics with
ABC News - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-22/the-ai-model-that-autonomously-hacked-a-company/106946936

The AI model that autonomously hacked a company Follow the latest headlines from ABC News, Australia's most trusted media source, with live events, audio and on-demand video from the national broadcaster.

🤔 Is it ever right to take risks on someone else’s behalf? Join Lara Buchak , our speaker, in this fascinating talk on risk, consent, fairness, and ethical decision-making under uncertainty.
30 July - 3.30 pm
RSSS Auditorium
ℹ️https://quicklink.anu.edu.au/lcs2

Congratulations to Corey McCabe. His paper ‘Philosophical Anarchism with Teeth’ has been selected as the winner of the annual postgraduate essay prize by the high-ranking journal, Res Publica, and will be published in a later issue. Well done, Corey!

Pop the champagne for our PhD candidate Magdalen Elmitt, who has won the 2026 AAP Postgraduate Presentation Prize. Very well deserved!
Arts & Social Sciences at ANU

Congratulations to Kirsten Mann for being awarded the 2026 (given each year for an outstanding philosophical paper published by an Australasian woman during the previous calendar year. Find her paper here: https://tinyurl.com/bdcznus9.

It is never too late to share good news: Former HDR student Heather Browning (currently a lecturer at University of Southampton) was a joint recipient of the 2026 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare Early Career Animal Welfare Researcher of the Year Award. Congrats!

Our Professors Christian Barry and Katie Steele were awarded the Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellowships at Princeton’s University Center for Human Values.
We look forward to your work !

ℹ️ https://tinyurl.com/bdesj2cx

We are handing AI more and more of the decisions that shape our lives. But can a machine handle a choice that has no clear right answer?

That is the question at the heart of this year's Myint Zan Law and Philosophy Lecture. Professor Ruth Chang argues that current approaches to AI "value alignment" miss something fundamental about how humans actually decide, and she offers an alternative framework to design systems that take hard choices seriously.

Attendance is free, but registration is required.

Wednesday 19 August 2026, 5pm
RSSS Auditorium, 146 Ellery Crescent, Acton

Artificial Intelligence and Value Alignment A Myint Zan Law and Philosophy Lecture.

Can AI make decisions that truly reflect human values?

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly involved in decisions that affect our lives, ensuring that these systems align with human values has become one of the most important challenges of our time.

Join Professor Ruth Chang (University of Oxford) for the 2026 Myint Zan Law and Philosophy Lecture as she explores why many of life's most important decisions are "hard choices"—choices that cannot be reduced to simple calculations or algorithms.

Wednesday 19 August 2026
Register now: https://myintzanlecture.eventbrite.com.au/