Damon Horowitz is a philosophy professor and serial entrepreneur. He is best known for his TED talks on teaching philosophy in prison and the ethics of the technology industry, and for his advocacy for the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

in the technology industry. Horowitz earned a BA from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, a MS in

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

from the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

, and a PhD in

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He began his career in technology, later returning to Stanford to earn a PhD in philosophy. He was a co-founder of the search engine

Aardvark The aardvark ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike ...

, Perspecta, and Novation Biosciences. He was also In-House Philosopher/Director of Engineering at

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

. Horowitz teaches courses in philosophy, AI, and cognitive science at NYU, Stanford, Columbia, U Penn, and San Quentin State Prison. Horowitz has served on the Board of Directors of several arts and humanities non-profits, and in 2013 he was elected to the Board of CalHumanities. In 2014, Horowitz founded the non-profit Shakespeare theater company "The Oracular Theatre", and directed their production of Julius Caesar.

References

External links

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TED Speaker page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horowitz, Damon Columbia College (New York) alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Stanford University alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Google people American company founders