Henry Shevlin

Associate Director (Education) | Programme Co-Director

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Henry Shevlin is Associate Director of CFI and Programme Co-director for Kinds of Intelligence, and leads our educational programmes. A widely published philosopher and cognitive scientist with interests in consciousness, creativity, and anthropomorphism, his current research focuses on the growing cognitive capabilities of AI, especially generative AI and large language models.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

  • Vervoort, L., Shevlin, H., Melnikov, A.A., Alodjants, A.,(2024) Deep Learning Applied to Scientific Discovery: A Hot Interface with Philosophy of Science, Journal for General Philosophy of Science
  • Srivastava, A., Rastogi, A., Rao, A., Shoeb, A.A.M., Abid, A., Fisch, A., Brown, A.R., Santoro, A., Gupta, A., Garriga-Alonso, A., Kluska, A., Lewkowycz, A., Agarwal, A., Power, A., Ray, A., Warstadt, A., Kocurek, A.W., Safaya, A., Tazarv, A., Xiang, A., Parrish, A., Nie, A., Hussain, A., Askell, A., Dsouza, A., Slone, A., Rahane, A., Iyer, A.S., Andreassen, A., Madotto, A., Santilli, A., Stuhlmüller, A., Dai, A., La, A., Lampinen, A., Zou, A., Jiang, A., Chen, A., Vuong, A., Gupta, A., Gottardi, A., Norelli, A., Venkatesh, A., Gholamidavoodi, A., Tabassum, A., Menezes, A., Kirubarajan, A., Mullokandov, A., Sabharwal, A., Herrick, A., Efrat, A., Erdem, A., Karakaş, A., Ryan Roberts, B., Loe, B.S., Zoph, B., Bojanowski, B., Özyurt, B., Hedayatnia, B., Neyshabur, B., Inden, B., Stein, B., Ekmekci, B., Lin, B.Y., Howald, B., Orinion, B., Diao, C., Dour, C., Stinson, C., Argueta, C., Ramírez, C.F., Singh, C., Rathkopf, C., Meng, C., Baral, C., Wu, C., Callison-Burch, C., Waites, C., Voigt, C., Manning, C.D., Potts, C., Ramirez, C., Rivera, C.E., Siro, C., Raffel, C., Ashcraft, C., Garbacea, C., Sileo, D., Garrette, D., Hendrycks, D., Kilman, D., Roth, D., Freeman, D., Khashabi, D., Levy, D., González, D.M., Perszyk, D., Hernandez, D., Chen, D., Ippolito, D., Gilboa, D., Dohan, D., Drakard, D., Jurgens, D., Datta, D., Ganguli, D., Emelin, D., Kleyko, D., Yuret, D., Chen, D., Tam, D., Hupkes, D., Misra, D., Buzan, D., Mollo, D.C., Yang, D., Lee, D.-H., Schrader, D., Shutova, E., Cubuk, E.D., Segal, E., Hagerman, E., Barnes, E., Donoway, E., Pavlick, E., Rodola, E., Lam, E., Chu, E., Tang, E., Erdem, E., Chang, E., Chi, E.A., Dyer, E., Jerzak, E., Kim, E., Manyasi, E.E., Zheltonozhskii, E., Xia, F., Siar, F., Martínez-Plumed, F., Happé, F., Chollet, F., Rong, F., Mishra, G., Winata, G.I., de Melo, G., Kruszewski, G., Parascandolo, G., Mariani, G., Wang, G., Jaimovitch-López, G., Betz, G., Gur-Ari, G., Galijasevic, H., Kim, H., Rashkin, H., Hajishirzi, H., Mehta, H., Bogar, H., Shevlin, H., Schütze, H., Yakura, H., Zhang, H., Wong, H.M., Ng, I., Noble, I., Jumelet, J., Geissinger, J., Kernion, J., Hilton, J., Lee, J., Fisac, J.F., Simon, J.B., Koppel, J., Zheng, J., Zou, J., Kocoń, J., Thompson, J., Wingfield, J., Kaplan, J., Radom, J., Sohl-Dickstein, J., Phang, J., Wei, J., Yosinski, J., Novikova, J., Bosscher, J., Marsh, J., Kim, J., Taal, J., Engel, J., Alabi, J., Xu, J., Song, J., Tang, J., Waweru, J., Burden, J., Miller, J., Balis, J.U., Batchelder, J., Berant, J., Frohberg, J., Rozen, J., Hernandez-Orallo, J., Boudeman, J., Guerr, J., Jones, J., Tenenbaum, J.B., Rule, J.S., Chua, J., Kanclerz, K., Livescu, K., Krauth, K., Gopalakrishnan, K., Ignatyeva, K., Markert, K., Dhole, K.D., Gimpel, K., Omondi, K., Mathewson, K., Chiafullo, K., Shkaruta, K., Shridhar, K., McDonell, K., Richardson, K., Reynolds, L., Gao, L., Zhang, L., Dugan, L., Qin, L., Contreras-Ochando, L., Morency, L.-P., Moschella, L., Lam, L., Noble, L., Schmidt, L., He, L., Colón, L.O., Metz, L., Şenel, L.K., Bosma, M., Sap, M., ter Hoeve, M., Farooqi, M., Faruqui, M., Mazeika, M., Baturan, M., Marelli, M., Maru, M., Quintana, M.J.R., Tolkiehn, M., Giulianelli, M., Lewis, M., Potthast, M., Leavitt, M.L., Hagen, M., Schubert, M., Baitemirova, M.O., Arnaud, M., McElrath, M., Yee, M.A., Cohen, M., Gu, M., Ivanitskiy, M., Starritt, M., Strube, M., Swędrowski, M., Bevilacqua, M., Yasunaga, M., Kale, M., Cain, M., Xu, M., Suzgun, M., Walker, M., Tiwari, M., Bansal, M., Aminnaseri, M., Geva, M., Gheini, M., Mukund Varma, T., Peng, N., Chi, N.A., Lee, N., Krakover, N.G.-A., Cameron, N., Roberts, N., Doiron, N., Martinez, N., Nangia, N., Deckers, N., Muennighoff, N., Keskar, N.S., Iyer, N.S., Constant, N., Fiedel, N., Wen, N., Zhang, O., Agha, O., Elbaghdadi, O., Levy, O., Evans, O., Casares, P.A.M., Doshi, P., Fung, P., Liang, P.P., Vicol, P., Alipoormolabashi, P., Liao, P., Liang, P., Chang, P., Eckersley, P., Htut, P.M., Hwang, P., Miłkowski, P., Patil, P., Pezeshkpour, P., Oli, P., Mei, Q., Lyu, Q., Chen, Q., Banjade, R., Rudolph, R.E., Gabriel, R., Habacker, R., Risco, R., Millière, R., Garg, R., Barnes, R., Saurous, R.A., Arakawa, R., Raymaekers, R., Frank, R., Sikand, R., Novak, R., Sitelew, R., LeBras, R., Liu, R., Jacobs, R., Zhang, R., Salakhutdinov, R., Chi, R., Lee, R., Stovall, R., Teehan, R., Yang, R., Singh, S., Mohammad, S.M., Anand, S., Dillavou, S., Shleifer, S., Wiseman, S., Gruetter, S., Bowman, S.R., Schoenholz, S.S., Han, S., Kwatra, S., Rous, S.A., Ghazarian, S., Ghosh, S., Casey, S., Bischoff, S., Gehrmann, S., Schuster, S., Sadeghi, S., Hamdan, S., Zhou, S., Srivastava, S., Shi, S., Singh, S., Asaadi, S., Gu, S.S., Pachchigar, S., Toshniwal, S., Upadhyay, S., Debnath, S., Shakeri, S., Thormeyer, S., Melzi, S., Reddy, S., Makini, S.P., Lee, S.-H., Torene, S., Hatwar, S., Dehaene, S., Divic, S., Ermon, S., Biderman, S., Lin, S., Prasad, S., Piantadosi, S.T., Shieber, S.M., Misherghi, S., Kiritchenko, S., Mishra, S., Linzen, T., Schuster, T., Li, T., Yu, T., Ali, T., Hashimoto, T., Wu, T.-L., Desbordes, T., Rothschild, T., Phan, T., Wang, T., Nkinyili, T., Schick, T., Kornev, T., Tunduny, T., Gerstenberg, T., Chang, T., Neeraj, T., Khot, T., Shultz, T., Shaham, U., Misra, V., Demberg, V., Nyamai, V., Raunak, V., Ramasesh, V., Prabhu, V.U., Padmakumar, V., Srikumar, V., Fedus, W., Saunders, W., Zhang, W., Vossen, W., Ren, X., Tong, X., Zhao, X., Wu, X., Shen, X., Yaghoobzadeh, Y., Lakretz, Y., Song, Y., Bahri, Y., Choi, Y., Yang, Y., Hao, Y., Chen, Y., Belinkov, Y., Hou, Y., Hou, Y., Bai, Y., Seid, Z., Zhao, Z., Wang, Z., Wang, Z.J., Wang, Z., Wu, Z.,(2024) Beyond the Imitation Game: Quantifying and extrapolating the capabilities of language models, arXiv
  • Shevlin, H.,(2024) How Could We Know When a Robot was a Moral Patient?, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
  • Shevlin, H.,(2024) Non-human consciousness and the specificity problem: A modest theoretical proposal, Mind and Language
  • Henry Shevlin,(2021) Non‐human consciousness and the specificity problem: A modest theoretical proposal, Mind & Language
  • Shevlin, H., Friesen, P.,(2024) Pain, placebo, and cognitive penetration, Mind and Language
  • Henry Shevlin, Phoebe Friesen,(2021) Pain, placebo, and cognitive penetration, Mind & Language
  • Shevlin, H.,(2024) Rethinking creative intelligence: comparative psychology and the concept of creativity, European Journal for Philosophy of Science
  • Henry Shevlin,(2021) Rethinking creative intelligence: comparative psychology and the concept of creativity, European Journal for Philosophy of Science
  • Shevlin, H.,(2024) Current controversies in the cognitive science of short-term memory, Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences

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Resources

Which Animals Matter?

H Shevlin (2021). ‘Which Animals Matter?’ Philosophical Topics

Rethinking creative intelligence: comparative psychology and the concept of creativity

H Shevlin (2021). ‘Rethinking creative intelligence: comparative psychology and the concept of creativity’ Euro Jnl Phil Sci, 2021 vol. 11, pp. 16 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-020-00323-8

Non-human consciousness and the specificity problem: A modest theoretical proposal

H Shevlin (2021). ‘Non-human consciousness and the specificity problem: A modest theoretical proposal’ Mind and Language, 18/01/2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/mila.12338

Non‐human consciousness and the specificity problem: A modest theoretical proposal

Non‐human consciousness and the specificity problem: A modest theoretical proposal. Mind & Language. 2021; 1– 18. https://doi.org/10.1111/mila.12338 Abstract: Most scientific theories of consciousness are challenging to apply outside the human case insofar as non‐human systems (both biological and artificial) are unlikely to implement human architecture precisely, an issue I call the specificity problem. After providing some […]

Cambridge Festival: From bees to bots: exploring the space of possible minds.

From bees to bots: exploring the space of possible minds. Speaker: Henry Shevlin, Chair: Ali Boyle.  With advances in machine learning in the last decade, the gap between biological and artificial intelligence seems to have narrowed. But even the most advanced artificial systems still fall short of many of the capabilities of humans and even simpler […]

Projects

Henry Shevlin

Consciousness and Intelligence

Investigating the nature and function of consciousness in humans, animals, and AI. The nature and function of consciousness is one of the most important outstanding problems of human science, and connects closely with ethical issues such as our treatment of animals, the welfare of patients in persistent vegetative states, and even the moral status of […]

Henry Shevlin

Creative Intelligence

Can machines be creative? Examining the capacity for creative thought. Creativity is often considered a distinctive feature of human or human-like intelligence. Scientists and artists struggle to explain their creativity, often resorting to all-too-easy creation myths (eg Newton’s apple), appealing to the divine, or citing the immense complexity and idiosyncrasy of the human mind. This […]

Henry Shevlin

Global Politics of AI

An interdisciplinary project that contributes cutting-edge research on the geopolitics of AI and the implications of AI development and deployment on international political systems. The Global Politics of AI Project is co-chaired by Dr Kerry McInerney and Haydn Belfield, and it sits in both the AI:FAR and the AI:Narratives and Justice programmes, It is an interdisciplinary project […]