About

Hello!

I’m Mike Zahorec–a philosopher and computer scientist.

My research focuses on our concepts and classifications—from AI methods to the objects of scientific theories to ordinary language. I am interested, in a word, in what exists and how we think about it.

In my philosophy dissertation, I work this topic from a very general angle by engaging with the philosophy of science literature on kinds. I defend what I call pluralist realism. This short paper and this longer paper are from my dissertation.

I work on the ethics and theory of AI, focusing on epistemic issues. From various theoretical and normative angles, I have been working out our epistemic relationships to different AI systems, especially when understood with different explainablity methods. I have developed and applied empirical methods for evaluating LLM self-explanations. Relatedly, I wrote a short paper about a responsible use paradigm for LLMs.

I am interested in AI evaluation more generally. Beyond being theoretically and technically very interesting, it is normatively significant for relatively obvious reasons: whether and in what contexts we should use or rely on systems depends, in large part, on how well they perform in relevant contexts. I have done relevant industry work and academic research.

I am a proponent and practitioner of digital humanities. See some of my projects.

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