Judea Pearl argues AI labs make a mistake hiring philosophers, drawing pushback over computational philosophy contributions · Digg

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Judea Pearl argues AI labs make a mistake hiring philosophers, drawing pushback over computational philosophy contributions

Story Overview

Turing Award winner Judea Pearl publicly dismissed the recent trend of AI labs recruiting philosophers, arguing their strength lies in framing intriguing questions rather than resolving them without computational testing grounds like those available to computer scientists.

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Original post

Judea Pearl@yudapearl#325inTech

Why-big-ai-labs-are-hiring-so-many-philosophers? https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/06/24/why-big-ai-labs-are-hiring-so-many-philosophers?giftId=ZGZjZmQ2ZmYtMmM3OC00NjM3LTg2YzQtOGJkMWQ5ZDVkNGIy&utm_campaign=gifted_article If they do, it's a big mistake -- philosophers are great in posing problems that people finds intruiging, but not too great in solving any of them. Why? Because they didn't have a laboratory to test their ideas, namely a computer.

6:16 PM · Jul 2, 2026 · 26.4K Views

Open Question

Philosophers Already Blend Theory with Code

Counter-posts from researchers at DeepMind and Johns Hopkins highlight existing work at places like the MINT Lab, where philosophers collaborate on computational experiments around AI alignment and governance, showing some integration of testing methods already underway.

Industry Shift

Hiring Scale Remains Unclear

No concrete numbers on how many philosophers have joined labs or what roles they fill appear in the linked Economist piece or the X exchange, leaving the practical impact of this hiring wave open to interpretation.

Sentiment

Many users dismissed AI labs hiring philosophers as pointless ethics washing or PR stunts to deflect fears, while others attacked defenses of the practice as ignorant or retarded.

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Why big AI labs are hiring so many philosophers

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Judea Pearl@yudapearl

It reminds me of the Greek vs German philosophers in Monty Python's famous soccer match: https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=https://www.youtube.com%20monty%20python%20philosophers%20match&mid=8ABF1BE5DC78C89585158ABF1BE5DC78C8958515&ajaxhist=0 Forgot who won, but I loved Archimedes.

Judea Pearl@yudapearl

Why-big-ai-labs-are-hiring-so-many-philosophers? https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/06/24/why-big-ai-labs-are-hiring-so-many-philosophers?giftId=ZGZjZmQ2ZmYtMmM3OC00NjM3LTg2YzQtOGJkMWQ5ZDVkNGIy&utm_campaign=gifted_article If they do, it's a big mistake -- philosophers are great in posing problems that people finds intruiging, but not too great in solving any of them. Why? Because they didn't have a laboratory to test their ideas, namely a computer.

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Judea Pearl@yudapearl

I like this division of labor: Philosophers would ignite the thinking and imaginations, AI would take the next step. I wonder though whether we really need the former, given that we have already so many philosophical questions pressing AI; eg. machine consciousness, world models, free will, machine ethics ... Do we need philosophers to tell us how Kant differed from Hegel?

OmVenture@OmVenture

@yudapearl Philosophers would ignite the thinking and imaginations AI would take the next step

It’s not only about questions and answers

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Seth Lazar@sethlazar

Hang on why don’t we have labs to test our ideas?! See eg http://mintresearch.org @yudapearl time to update some old prejudices!!

Judea Pearl@yudapearl

Why-big-ai-labs-are-hiring-so-many-philosophers? https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/06/24/why-big-ai-labs-are-hiring-so-many-philosophers?giftId=ZGZjZmQ2ZmYtMmM3OC00NjM3LTg2YzQtOGJkMWQ5ZDVkNGIy&utm_campaign=gifted_article If they do, it's a big mistake -- philosophers are great in posing problems that people finds intruiging, but not too great in solving any of them. Why? Because they didn't have a laboratory to test their ideas, namely a computer.

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David Galbraith@daveg

@yudapearl The theory is maybe sound, philosophers asking good questions where all that matters with a universal answer machine is the inputs. Except I think we'll find that philosophers don't ask very answerable questions so there's no feedback loop to make it useful.

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xavi@xzapata99

Somehow, academic philosophy has cornered the market on "AI ethics," most of which should be as basic as empiricism and Stoicism (observe, test, focus on what we can control).

Instead, as with most philosophical disciplines, they always seem to ensure job security through needless complication rather than solvable problems relevant to reality.

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Oliver Klingefjord@klingefjord

@Dr_Atoosa also, if philosophers are not solving problems *because* they dont have a laboratory to test their ideas / a computer, isn't an ai lab (eg. a laboratory to test their ideas with a big-ass computer) exactly where they should be?

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OmVenture@OmVenture

@yudapearl Philosophers would ignite the thinking and imaginations AI would take the next step

It’s not only about questions and answers

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Judea Pearl@yudapearl

@daveg Some questions philosophers asked are answerable, eg what is knowledge, how we obtain it, what is causation etc. Others will be answered (by AI) in the future, eg. what is consciousness, free will etc.

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Judea Pearl@yudapearl

@BorisGrozdanoff I believe you are talking about scientists and mathematicians, who used to be called "Philosophers" before the distinction was deemed necessary, during the Scientific Revolution (16th–17th centuries).

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Ted Pavlic (he/him/his)@TedPavlic

@yudapearl @BruceTedesco I just assumed it was ethics washing -- conspicuous virtue signaling to assuage any doubts about the ethical compass of the company (while not actually having much input into where the company is being steered).

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pete wolfendale@deontologistics

@klingefjord @Dr_Atoosa Honestly, having gone back to work on natural language semantics recently, we desperately need to get philosophers talking to computers scientists again. We invented type theory! And yet no one seems to understand CS is the cutting edge of analysis for, e.g., variable binding.

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Micky B.@x_micky_b

@yudapearl Sometimes to understand something, you need to ask yourself the right questions.

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Rob De La Vigne@BorisGrozdanoff

@yudapearl So comforting to see that philosophers (including the likes of Russell and Frege) are in the company of other problem non-solvers like Descartes, Galileo, Newton, Leibnitz, Godel, Einstein and few others, who obviously failed to solve any problem, as they did not have a computer.

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Edward Ross@edwardross01

@yudapearl Humanity doesn’t have problems in need of solution. Problems are life processes in need of knowing and tinkering with in hope of improvement. As soon as you think of solution you are on the wrong track.

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David Minor@DahvidMinor

@yudapearl Perhaps foundation models can become the new laboratory for philosophers?

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Andreas Ramos@Andreas_Ramos

@Dr_Atoosa @protoleibniz is right: AI is based on Analytical Philosophy. over 100 years ago, Russell, Moore, Frege, Wittgenstein, and others developed the mathematization of language. AI today is applied philosophy. go ahead: open a vol. of Bertrand Russell and see.

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David Suissa@DavidSuissaJJ

@yudapearl A philosopher would read your comment and write a book about the philosophy of looking for solutions.

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Sally K@SallyUniSA

Judea starts out with this. Why-big-ai-labs-are-hiring-so-many-philosophers? If they do, it's a big mistake -- philosophers are great in posing problems that people finds intriguing, but not too great in solving any of them. Why?

My first thought was - sounds like AI researchers on the topic of alignment.

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Judea Pearl@yudapearl

@TedPavlic @BruceTedesco Agree. I have seen lots of virtue signaling: "We care a lot about the social implications of our products - we even hired two philosophers to make sure we do it right"

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David Minor@DahvidMinor

@yudapearl I don’t like the term AI models for obvious reasons, LLMs refers to language, but what’s the generic term for statistical models built from language, video and or music? שבת שלום

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