Ariella Shulman

I am a Research Assistant at the University of Cambridge. Through my research, I seek to understand the impact of artificial intelligence on human learning, skill development, and social organization.

I am particularly interested in the following questions:

• Future of work — How does automation affect human agency?
• Education — What does good teaching look like; can an LLM be a good teacher?
• Social institutions — How does AI disrupt historical patterns of epistemic authority?
• Democracy — Can AI be useful in eliciting preferences from pluralist groups?

While I spend a lot of time around technology, my background is in the humanities. I hold a BA in Philosophy (summa cum laude) from Emory University, and a Master of Philosophy in Ethics of AI (with Distinction) from the University of Cambridge. I read a lot of pragmatism, cybernetics, and embodied cognition. My research methodologies span cognitive science, behavioral economics, and social epistemology. One of my side projects is learning how to bridge the conceptual gap between humanities and engineering.

You can typically find me at the Trustworthy AI (TRACE) lab in the Centre for Human-Inspired AI (CHIA) at Cambridge. I also work closely with Eedi Labs in their partnership with Google DeepMind. My research has been generously supported by the Cosmos Institute, King’s E-Lab, and Murray Edwards College.