Center for Cyber Social Dynamics Affiliated Researchers

Syed Aubmusab earned his PhD student at the KU philosophy department. He is currently an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Texas-Arlington. His current research is about large language models such as chatbots. He argues that sophisticated chatbots are social agents. Further, their agency is multi-dimensional, and chatbots, as conversationalists, occupy the social dimension of agency. Social bots like chatbots are also construable as companions to older adults. The overarching project aims to establish chatbots as social agents capable of companionship to help lonely older adults. Many older adults have no other relationship available to exercise their social capacity to converse. Thus, chatbots, whether embodied, textual, or virtual, are suitable candidates to fill this social gap. In addition to his work on chatbots and social agency, he also explore the fact that we risk missing out on valuable insights from other cultures by focusing mainly on Western notions of technology ethics. Drawing on religious and cultural nuances like the "mahram" relationships, he proposes that carebots are a good solution for Muslims who avoid care homes due to religious constraints. His dissertation results from collaborations between psychologists, computer scientists, and philosophers.

Syed's Personal Site