Are you studying philosophy and would like to pursue a career outside of academia? Did you ever wonder what a job in AI and Data Ethics looked like and whether it could be for you? I interviewed two philosophy graduates working in AI and Data Ethics to help you answer these questions. We published Part 1 of this series already, and you can read it here. Part 2 of this series is dedicated to Katie Evans, a freelance consultant in AI Ethics who kindly agreed to answer a few questions about her profession. Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when new posts like this come out!
Who’s Katie Evans?#
Katie Evans is a freelance consultant in AI Ethics. She works for IEEE and is developing ethical standards and certifications for autonomous vehicles. She also works at the International Research Center on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) as an analyst focusing on the EU legislative agenda around AI and AI policy, and at UNESCO where she was the author of UNESCO’s Graphic Novel for AI Literacy. She went to film school and has a MA in ethical and political philosophy from Sorbonne University, where she specialised in AI ethics (which was called robot or machine ethics at the time). During her PhD, she contributed to the sketch of an effective ethical crash algorithm for autonomous vehicles.
Interview#
1. What does a typical day as an AI Ethics Consultant look like?#
Katie told Let’s Phi that she takes on different clients for different projects.
“I have multiple clients that contact me at all times of the day or night for different projects. There are lots of phone calls and emails. I travel quite a lot for public-facing work in panels and conferences for my clients. Most of the time, I am able to speak for myself, not an institution”.
She also told us that, after her doctorate, she was not so keen to work for a single company because of the value-conflict issue. Katie said: “As an ethical expert in AI, if you work in the private sector, (…) you sometimes have to endorse statements and policies that don’t align with your principles. I was really trying to avoid that”.
“ I TRAVEL A LOT, ANSWER A LOT OF PHONE CALLS, READ A LOT OF EMAILS AND HAVE A LOT OF DELIVERABLES.”
2. Why did you choose to work outside of academia?#
Katie’s reasons for seeking out a non-academic job revolve around issues with communication, creative writing and the academic job market.
- Communication: Katie told us that her communicative style clashed with the expectations around communication that are taken as the norm in academia.“When I was still in academia, I had a tendency to take complex scientific concepts and explain them bluntly and simply. That was both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it made for pretty nice presentations and made my work more accessible to non-philosophers. On the other hand, I caught a lot of flack for it because it was too simple. The idea for me was that if you have a concept or argument and can’t explain it to a 12-year-old, it means that you did not understand it.”
- Creative writing: Her writing style was also different from the way you are expected to write and deliver your content in academic settings. Katie said: “I am a creative writer. I wanted to write things that were more fun and creative and not so dry and academic and I was sometimes punished for that”.
- Academic job market: Katie also spoke candidly about the reality of the academic job market and how difficult it can be for people to afford to embark on this career path. She told Let’s Phi “And finally, I live in France, but I have Canadian student loans, and the French career academic path is not one that I can afford. I had to find more lucrative sources of employment. It’s a shame that you go so long getting paid so little because it weeds out a lot of people that would have been very good at the job but just can’t afford to do it”.
3. Any transferable knowledge or skills Philosophy gave you?#
Katie identified two core skills that she acquired by studying philosophy. These skills routinely help her carry out projects for her clients:
- Ethical knowledge: “My work at the IEEE (…) on autonomous vehicles ethical standards is a direct application of my thesis.”
- Critical thinking: “Whenever I am with somebody who does not work in academia but is a philosopher or has worked outside of academia but is now back in it, we always sit around talking about how the stringency of analysis in philosophy makes you an incredible asset in critical thinking. Usually, even if you are not from the discipline, your insights will be much deeper only because you are used to working with many more layers of abstraction than most people. It is usually incredibly helpful to have a philosopher in your team because they can think deeper and more critically and pull the different perspectives together.”
4. Do you have any advice for philosophy graduates interested in working outside of academia?#
Katie encourages philosophy students and graduates to be confident and network as much as possible.
Regarding being confident, she says: “Be confident and knock on doors that may be even a little hostile to philosophers. I would spend most of my time with engineers, technical experts or political players. Most of them were originally sceptical of the value of philosophy. Once you start to show what you can do, everyone gets much warmer. Search out opportunities without worrying about whether you are really qualified. Quite a lot of the time, it comes down to how critically you can think.”
Also, she emphasises the importance of networking: “As a philosopher, it’s not always obvious how to apply your skills outside of academia. Talk yourself up and move around. Try to put in some facetime with people that you think are talented and interesting. Often opportunities will grow out of these interactions without having to force it.”
There you go, Phiers! We hope you enjoyed this blog post/interview with Katie. We deeply value her insight and we appreciate her taking the time to chat with us about her non-academic career!
Keep an eye out for our newsletter, and subscribe to be notified when similar posts go live.
[This post was written by Mathilde Léon, Writer & Researcher @ Let’s Phi, as well as a valued community member].
Don’t forget to visit Let’s Phi website to see all our upcoming career workshops. You can also find us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Best Wishes,
The Let’s Phi Team.
#aiethics #dataethics #ethics #ukgovernment #academia #philosophydegree #employability #careerpath #skills #networking #careerinterview
Originally published on Substack by Mathilde Léon.