Andrew Buzzell - CV

Areas of Specialization

Applied Ethics (especially AI/Technology)
Social Epistemology

Areas of Competence

Epistemology
Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy of Technology

Research Interests

My research is broadly concerned with questions at the intersection of technology, ethics, and epistemology, and I've conducted research on big data and public health ethics, AI in health care and human resources, and misinformation and disinformation in social media systems. My dissertation project was specifically focused on theoretical, ethical and practical responses to hostile influence campaigns and computational propaganda. I connect philosophical work on social epistemology, epistemic paternalism, and epistemic norms to empirical research on social media systems and information security to describe a set of social and political challenges raised by our growing capacity for epistemic engineering. There is a literature on fake news and epistemic paternalism that bears on our response to these challenges, but it is relatively narrow in scope, and ties justifiable interference closely to content and assessments of its accuracy, and to political values. The formal and informal governance of the information environment is hindered by the absence of a conception of ecological health that is agnostic in terms of content and interests. I develop an account of epistemic normativity grounded in our inherent epistemic interdependence to bring into focus our collective underlying reliance on a healthy and well-functioning information environment. This in turn can inform a theory of justifiable epistemic paternalism that can guide the development of ethical and effective countermeasures to threats to the information environment. I connect this to national security discourses about information warfare, resilience, and cognitive security.

Education & Employment

2023-2025: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship – University of Western Ontario
2022-ongoing: CAIO -VidCruiter Inc.
2018-2024: PhD – York University Toronto
- Graduate Entrance Scholarship (2018-2020)
- SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral Fellowship (2019-2023)
- University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics Scholar Fellowship (2020)
- Susan Mann Dissertation Scholarship (2022)
2010-2018: Private Sector Software Engineering
- 2005-2012 – Principal Engineer – Produced information systems for non-profits and NGOs
- 2012-2017 – VP Engineering – Professional and consumer health and sport products
2008-2010: M.A. – Carleton University
- Thesis: Naturalized Theories of Mental Representation (with Distinction)
- Graduate Scholarship
B.A. – Carleton University
- High Honours
- Entrance Scholarship

Publications

(Under Review) “TikTok as a Threat to Democracy? Conceptions of Cognitive and Epistemic Security in Discourse on the TikTok Ban.” Journal of Cyber Policy. Lead author, with Dr. Jacquelyn Burkell.
(Under Review) “Harms Typologies and the Ethical Analysis of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care.” Big Data and Society. Lead author, with Dr. Jay Shaw.
(Under Review) “Environmental epistemic dependence – seeing through anonymous testimony.” Synthese.
(2022) “Doing your own research and other impossible acts of epistemic superheroism.” Philosophical Psychology. Co-authored with Dr. Regina Rina.
(2022) “Public Goods from Private Data – An Effectiveness and Justification Dilemma for Digital Contact Tracing.” The Journal of Sociotechnical Critique.

Conference Presentations

May 2025 - “What Humans Soon Can't Do?” Rotman Research Retreat “AI and Human Relationships”.
(Scheduled Fall 2025) “Masked Conflicts and Cognitive Defenses: Rethinking Security in the Age of Information Disorder.” Annual meeting of the Society for the Social Studies of Science.
(2025) “Ethical AI in hiring?” Keynote, VidCruiter Inc. Annual Meeting.
(2024) Rotman Institute for Philosophy Research Showcase “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Cognitive Security”.
(2023) University of Western Ontario “(Dis)Trust and AI: Perspectives from Across Disciplines and Sectors”. Panelist – “What does reliable or ‘trustworthy’ AI look like?”.
(2023) HR Tech (Las Vegas) – Panelist – “The Future Interview Journey: From Structured Interviewing to AI”.
(2022) Data and Society Workshop – “The Social Life of Algorithmic Harms”. (with Dr. Jay Shaw) “AI in Healthcare – A Typology of Risk and Harms”.
(2021) “A Justification Paradox for Libertarian Paternalism.” Annual meeting of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S).
(2021) (with Shaw J., Donia J., Richmond N.) “Using institutional ethnography to study embedded values in AI systems.” 4S Annual Meeting.
(2021) Canadian Philosophical Association Annual Congress – “Perceptual Pragmatism and Representational Reuse”.
(2021) Canadian Bioethics Society Conference – “Public Goods from Private Data – An Effectiveness and Justification Dilemma for Digital Contact Tracing”.
(2020) Canadian Philosophical Association – “Nudging, Epistemic Paternalism and the Ethics of Cognitive Security”.
(2019) Society for the Metaphysics of Science Annual Conference – Comments on Alessandra Buccella (Pittsburgh) “Perceptual Constancy is Dead, Long Live Perceptual Constancy!”.
(2012) Atlantic Region Philosophers Association – “Teleosemantics and Indeterminacy”.
(2009) Carleton Research Day – “Naturalized Intentionality and Neurosemantics”.

Research & Knowledge Mobilization

(2025) “Thanks to social media platforms, election interference is more insidious and pervasive than ever.” The Conversation. Follow-up CBC radio interview and local media coverage.
(2025) Conference Developer & Organizer – “Election interference and security in a contested infosphere” (UWO Political Science & Rotman Institute). Sole organizer.
(2024) Conference Developer & Organizer – “AI and Democracy” (Rotman Institute, UWO). Sole organizer.
(2024) Think Tank Grant – “The Ethics of Cognitive Security” (Rotman Institute). Secured funding and hired two PhD students.
(2022-) Grant-writing & Project Manager – York University “Fake News Spam: Conceptual and empirical studies of AI mass-produced deception” (SSHRC-funded).
(2022-) Director of Responsible AI – VidCruiter Inc. (IRAP grant work; EEOC submission; AI application design).
(2021-) Coordinator – University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics “Values Ecosystems in the Design of AI for Health Care”.
(2021) Consultant – Wax LLC: ethical data & AI strategy for insur-tech startup.
(2020-) Research Assistant – Dr. Regina Rini (York University) – projects on social media deception.
(2020-) Consultant – Ethical Intelligence (clients: Franklin Templeton, Univ. of Edinburgh, Rasa Inc.).
(2019-2020) Research Contributor – Montreal AI Ethics Institute (closed messaging, problematic information, State of AI Ethics 2021).
(2019) Internship – University of Edinburgh / Ethical Intelligence (AI ethics in real-time finance; UNICEF refugee-data project).
(2019-2020) Research Assistant – Dr. Jacob Beck (York University) – numerosity representation; publication in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Teaching Experience

(2023-2025) University of Western Ontario – Instructor: Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar “The Ethical and Social Impacts of Artificial Intelligence”.
(2019-2022) York University – TA: “Modes of Reasoning: Techniques of Persuasion”.
(2020) Ethical Intelligence / Humain NV – Workshop Series: “The Ethics of COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing”.
(2020) Ethical Intelligence – Online course: “An Introduction to Tech Ethics for Programmers”.
(2018-2019) York University – TA: “Introduction to Philosophy”.
(2008-2010) Carleton University – TA: “Issues in Practical Philosophy”.
(2008-2009) Carleton University – TA: “18th Century Philosophy”.
(2008-2010) Carleton University – TA: “Issues in Theoretical Philosophy”.
(2008-2010) Carleton University – TA: “Introduction to Ethics & Social Issues”.

Other Professional Activities

Referee for: AI & Society; Big Data and Society; British Journal of Aesthetics; Philosophical Psychology; Philosophy of Technology; Synthese; The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Episteme.