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About James
James Maclaurin is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Otago, where he directs the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Public Policy (CAIPP). He formerly held the position of Associate Dean for Research in the Division of Humanities. Maclaurin obtained his BA (Hons) in 1992 and MA in 1994 from Victoria University of Wellington—the latter in scientific applications of mathematical information theory—and his PhD in philosophy of science from the Australian National University in 1998. Before Otago, he taught at the Australian National University, University of Melbourne, and Victoria University of Wellington as a Marsden Postdoctoral Fellow. At Otago, he founded the Artificial Intelligence and Society Group (with Brendan McCane), served as University Public Orator in 2019, is an affiliate of the Bioethics Centre, and serves as a member of the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
His scholarly work centers on the philosophy of biology, addressing topics such as innateness, fitness, theoretical morphology, and biological diversity, alongside applying evolutionary principles to philosophy of time, computer science, economics, and metaphilosophy. In recent years, his focus has shifted toward artificial intelligence, tackling epistemic, ontological, and ethical issues in public health, economics, ecology, and information science. He has edited 'A New Science of Religion' (Routledge, 2013, with Gregory W. Dawes) and 'Rationis Defensor: Essays in Honour of Colin Cheyne' (Springer, 2012). Prominent monographs include 'What is Biodiversity?' (University of Chicago Press, 2008, with Kim Sterelny; 534 citations) and 'A Citizen's Guide to Artificial Intelligence' (MIT Press, 2021, with John Zerilli and others). Key articles feature 'Transparency in Algorithmic and Human Decision-Making: Is There a Double Standard?' (Philosophy & Technology, 2019; 470 citations) and 'Algorithmic Decision-Making and the Control Problem' (Minds and Machines, 2019; 208 citations). He has authored influential reports, including 'The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Jobs and Work in New Zealand' (New Zealand Law Foundation, 2021) and 'Government Use of Artificial Intelligence in New Zealand' (2019). Maclaurin was awarded the University of Otago Teaching Excellence Award in 2011 and appointed Emeritus Professor on 14 November 2023.
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