Exeter College Fellow awarded prestigious ERC Advanced Grant for artificial intelligence research
Professor Mona Simion, Michael Cohen Fellow in Philosophy at Exeter College, has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant worth €2.5 million for a major new research project examining the epistemology of artificial intelligence.
The five-year project, entitled The Epistemology of Artificial Intelligence: A Foundational Framework(AI-KNOW), will begin in April 2027 and aims to develop the first systematic philosophical framework for understanding artificial epistemic agency. The award is among the most competitive and prestigious research grants in Europe, supporting established researchers pursuing ambitious, high-risk projects with the potential to make significant advances in their fields.
As artificial intelligence systems become increasingly embedded in scientific research, healthcare, education, law, and public life, AI-KNOW will investigate fundamental questions about their role as generators and communicators of knowledge. The project asks whether AI systems should be understood merely as sophisticated tools or whether they can be regarded as genuine epistemic agents capable of knowledge, understanding, justification, and epistemic responsibility.
The research programme will develop a comprehensive framework for assessing artificial intelligence across four interconnected areas: the nature of artificial epistemic agency, the conditions under which AI systems can generate knowledge and understanding, the principles governing trust and collaboration between humans and AI, and the practical implications of AI use in domains including medical diagnosis, legal decision-making, education, and the detection of disinformation.
Professor Simion’s research spans epistemology, philosophy of language, moral and political philosophy, philosophy of artificial intelligence, and philosophy of information, alongside interdisciplinary collaborations with neuroscience, psychology, computer science, and medicine. She is the author of several influential books, including Resistance to Evidence (Cambridge University Press, 2024), Shifty Speech and Independent Thought (Oxford University Press, 2021), and Sharing Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 2021, with Christoph Kelp). Her forthcoming publications include Knowledge and Artificial Intelligence (Cambridge University Press, with C. Kelp).
Professor Simion is currently leading the ERC-funded KnowledgeLab: Knowledge-First Social Epistemology project and serves as Ambassador of the European Research Council to the United Kingdom. Her work has received international recognition, including the 2018 Mind Fellowship and the Young Epistemologist Prize 2021. She is an elected member of Academia Europaea and Vice-Chair of the Young Academy of Europe.
