Career Funding- Philippine Philosopher transitioning to AI

I am a philosopher from the Philippines specializing in feminist and political philosophy, social epistemology, and ethics of technology, with a focus on how institutions and knowledge systems shape power, exclusion, and societal outcomes. As I transition to AI safety, governance, and alignment, I'm drawing from my decade-long expertise in developing frameworks on societal impacts of AI, especially in underrepresented contexts. Over the past months, we've seen the growing recognition that AI needs philosophers--which is an important shift, but I want to push further this question: whose philosophy is shaping AI? I hope to contribute in filling the gap in AI policy, governance, and safety discourse by providing a Global South perspective, that I believe is still underrepresented and urgently needed in the field.

For this career transition, my objectives are: I aim to (1) deepen my understanding of AI policy, governance, and safety research through independent study, workshops, fellowships, conferences, and engagement with researchers and institutions.; (2) adapt and further develop my existing original philosophical frameworks: Political Resilience and the Non-Ideal Empowerment Principle (NIEP), for responsible AI evaluation; and (3) contribute to discussions on inclusion, power, and risk in AI systems through a research publication and public-facing work. My work plan has two phases: first, phase will focus on developing deeper AI and policy/governance/safety literacy while building relationships within the AI research community. The second phase will be dedicated to refining my proposed framework/output, incorporating feedback from researchers, and producing public-facing work. I plan to focus on intensive learning and immersion in the AI research community. Since I already possess a B1/B2 US visa, I plan to attend conferences and research visits to institutions, think tanks, AI labs, and engage with researchers on AI safety and policy in the US. These activities will help strengthen my research and career transition.

About my research which I plan to examine throughout the transition: how AI systems that are considered aligned under ideal assumptions can fail when used/deployed in non-ideal social conditions. I aim to investigate how inequality, uneven access to epistemic resources, and differing individual capacities introduce forms of misalignment. Most AI alignment and safety research assume “ideal users” (with enough access, resources, etc), but this is not the case, especially in marginalized contexts. I aim to develop and apply my Non-Ideal Empowerment Principle (NIEP) as a framework for evaluating whether AI systems remain safe and aligned when used by populations with constrained agency, limited access to knowledge and information, or vulnerability to harm. NIEP hopes to provide criteria (Structural feasibility, epistemic resources, and risk distribution) and diagnostic tool for identifying alignment failures. I also plan to investigate how AI governance can incorporate diverse perspectives into AI decision-making using the same framework. By utilizing my expertise in political philosophy and social epistemology, I aim to develop a framework that is both theoretically rigorous and practically useful for designing responsible, ethical, and inclusive use of AI.