I am a Postdoctoral Associate in the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing at MIT. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2023.
My research focuses on the ways in which technology reflects and affects human values, so I am usually thinking about ethics, aesthetics, and epistemology. My dissertation was on the ethics of virtual actions. I am also interested in other issues at the intersection of ethics and aesthetics, the ethics of information and technology, algorithmic bias, and algorithmic decision making.
Before going into academic philosophy, I received a B.A. from Columbia University in philosophy and mathematics and briefly worked in the legal field. I grew up in Beirut, Lebanon.
Outside of philosophy, I practice judo, meditate regularly, and play video games.
karim.nader [at] utexas [dot] edu
I am currently working with a research team to study entertainment media's role in shaping the public's perception around artificial intelligence. The project is part of Good Systems, an initiative by the University of Texas at Austin to define, evaluate, and build “Good Systems.”
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I started working with a research team who received a National Science Foundation RAPID/Collaborative grant to study the process of real-time decisions that digital volunteers make when quickly converting social media data into codes for machine learning. This will allow us to better the human-machine teaming process. Here is the link that gives all the details of the grant.
Compass is a workshop for undergraduates from historically underrepresented groups in philosophy. Ten to twelve undergraduates from all around Texas come to Austin for a weekend to participate each year. The workshop consists of discussion sections led by a graduate student on readings in feminist philosophy.
I organized the workshops listed below. Compass at UT was started by Emilie Pagano.
I led the meditation and philosophy group at the University of Texas at Austin, which was founded by Kimberly Dill. The aim of the group is to practice and learn meditation together. We start each semester with a few sessions of guided meditation practices in the Vipassana tradition but everyone is encouraged to follow whatever practice is beneficial to them. We conclude each session by sharing tea and reflecting on our experience.