The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the job market, but contrary to most forecasts, it triggers a growing interest in qualified philosophers. According to information from the prestigious weekly The Economist, republished by the news media NDTV, major technological laboratories—including Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and IBM—are actively recruiting philosophy graduates to tackle some of the industry’s toughest challenges.
Here are the key areas because of which philosophy is becoming a crucial factor in the development of AI:
- The Socratic Method as an Alternative to Hallucination: Techniques like structured questioning help AI systems become less agreeable and more focused on the truth. Incorporating the principle of “Socratic ignorance” treats the overconfidence of models by teaching them humility—an approach that experts believe is fundamental to successfully addressing AI hallucinations.
- Technological Attempts to Solve Ethical Problems: Developers use classical ethical theories to program machine behavior. Models like ChatGPT and Gemini often rely on consequentialism (focusing on the final outcome), while others, such as Anthropic’s Claude, apply Kant’s deontological approach. It emphasizes adherence to strict moral rules and principles of control over AI actions (such as prohibitions against lying or manipulation).
- Digital Safety Regulations: To prevent malicious actions like deception or extortion, companies are building “constitutions” for their models. These are based on moral and legal principles, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the terms of service of major technological platforms.
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The possibility of philosophical approaches increasing the predictability of artificial intelligence systems does not eliminate the risk of humans losing the skills for independent ethical decision-making if they delegate morality entirely to machines. This phenomenon, known among experts as “moral deskilling”, raises serious questions about the future of human judgment in the digital era. As theorists in the field note, the dynamic, culturally variable, and subjective nature of morality makes it extremely difficult to fully and safely formalize within software code.
The text is prepared based on the material by NDTV: Why Big AI Labs Are Hiring More Philosophers. Read the full detailed article on NDTV’s Artificial Intelligence Section.
