Curriculum Vitae

Yunlong Cao 曹运龙
Department of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine

Irvine, CA · yunlongc AT uci DOT edu

Areas of Research

Area of Specialization: Epistemology, Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
Area of Competence: Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Computer Science, Logic

Education

Ph.D., Department of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine, expected spring 2027
M.A., Department of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, 2022
B.A., Department of Philosophy, Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, 2022

Publications

Under Review

  • The Personal Identity Assumption in External World Skeptical Scenarios, revised and resubmitted at Synthese
  • Beyond Action-Guidance: Evaluative Doxastic Norms and the Epistemic–Zetetic Tension, submitted and under review at Social Epistemology

In Preparation

  • Understanding How It Works Defeats Mental Attribution
  • The Mechanistic Transparency of Computer Programs
  • Virtual-Inclusive Categories and the Simulation Hypothesis
Fellowships, Grants and Awards
  • 2026Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, UC Irvine
  • 2026Summer Dissertation Fellowship, School of Humanities, UC Irvine
  • 2024AI and Data Ethics Summer Training Fellowship (NSF Award #2147220), Northeastern University
  • 2022Graduate Dean’s Recruitment Fellowship, UC Irvine
  • 2024–2026Graduate Student Travel Grant, American Philosophical Association (three awards)
  • 2024–2026Diverse Educational Community and Doctoral Experience Professional Development Award, UC Irvine (two awards)
  • 2023–2026Professional Development Grant, Department of Philosophy, UC Irvine (five awards)
  • 2024–2026Conference Travel Grant, School of Humanities, UC Irvine (two awards)
Presentations (refereed*)

Papers

The Mechanistic Transparency of Computer Programs

  • 2026Epistemology of AI Conference, UC Irvine and Chapman University, Irvine/Orange, CA, February 6–7

Understanding How It Works Defeats Mental Attribution

  • 2026International Association for Computing and Philosophy Conference, Lawrence, KS, July 15–17*
  • 2026AI and Philosophy Conference, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, April 16*
  • 2026APA Eastern Division Meeting, Baltimore, MD, January 7–10*
  • 2025UC Irvine Department of Philosophy Graduate Talk Series, Irvine, CA, February 28

The Personal Identity Assumption in External World Skeptical Scenarios

  • 2026Berkeley–Stanford–Davis Graduate Conference in Philosophy, Stanford, CA, May 9*
  • 202617th Notre Dame/Northwestern Graduate Epistemology Conference, South Bend, IN, May 1–2*
  • 2026University of Connecticut Graduate Conference in Philosophy, Storrs, CT, remote presentation, April 25*
  • 2026UC Irvine Department of Philosophy Brown Bag Work-in-Progress Series, Irvine, CA, March 11

Virtual-Inclusive Categories and the Simulation Hypothesis

  • 2025APA Central Division Meeting, online, February 20–22 and February 27–March 1*
  • 202428th Annual Oxford Graduate Philosophy Conference, Oxford, UK, November 16–17*
  • 2024Open Minds XVII Conference, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, September 19–20*
  • 2024Salzburg Conference for Young Analytic Philosophy, Salzburg, Austria, remote presentation, September 11–13*

Beyond Action-Guidance: Evaluative Doxastic Norms and the Epistemic–Zetetic Tension

  • 202613th Biennial Rochester Graduate Epistemology Conference, Rochester, NY, scheduled for October 16–17*
  • 2026UC Irvine Department of Philosophy Graduate Talk Series, Irvine, CA, April 24
  • 2024APA Pacific Division Meeting, Portland, OR, March 20–23*
  • 2023Southern California Epistemology Network Workshop, Irvine, CA, February 11

Commentaries

  • 2024On Paul E. Smaldino and Cailin O’Connor, “Interdisciplinarity Can Aid the Spread of Better Methods Between Scientific Communities,” SoCal Pragmatist Forum, Irvine, CA, October 5
Teaching Experience

Course-by-course terms and evaluations are on the Teaching page.

University of California, Irvine, Instructor of Record

  • Argument and Research (Winter 2026, Spring 2026)
  • Technology and Society (Summer II 2025)

University of California, Irvine, Teaching Assistant

  • Introduction to Knowledge (Fall 2025, Summer I 2026)
  • Introduction to Philosophy (Fall 2023, Summer I 2024, Summer II 2024, Fall 2024, Summer I 2025)
  • Puzzles and Paradoxes (Winter 2025, Spring 2025)
  • Introduction to Metaphysics (Spring 2024)
  • Introduction to Ethics (Winter 2024)
Service

Peer Review for Journal

  • International Journal for the Study of Skepticism, 2023

Peer Review for Conference

  • First Riverside–Irvine Graduate Philosophy Conference, 2025
  • UC Irvine Graduate Conference in Philosophy, 2024
  • Genealogies and Belief Conference, UC Irvine, 2024

Conference Organization

  • Co-Organizer, Epistemology of AI Conference, UC Irvine and Chapman University, Irvine/Orange, CA, February 6–7, 2026
  • Co-Organizer, First Riverside–Irvine Graduate Philosophy Conference, UC Riverside and UC Irvine, Irvine, CA, October 25, 2025

Conference Chairing

  • “Truth, Thinking, Personhood” Panel, AI and Philosophy Conference, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, April 16, 2026
  • Session on Philosophy of Language and AI, Epistemology of AI Conference, UC Irvine and Chapman University, Irvine/Orange, CA, February 6–7, 2026
  • Session on Social Epistemology, APA Pacific Division Meeting, San Francisco, CA, April 16–19, 2025

University Service

  • Student Representative, Diverse Educational Community and Doctoral Experience (DECADE) Program, UC Irvine, 2024–2026

Departmental Service

  • Workshop Facilitator, DECADE and Mentoring Women and Marginalized Groups Summer Camp, Department of Philosophy, UC Irvine, 2024, 2025

Community Service

  • Evaluator, Giles T. Brown Student Project and Research Symposium, Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA, 2024
Additional Training

Summer Schools

  • 2025, 2022The North American Summer School in Logic, Language, and Information
  • 2024AI and Data Ethics Summer Training Program (NSF Award #2147220), Northeastern University
  • 202213th Ludwig Wittgenstein Summer School, Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society

Pedagogical Training

  • 2025Rhetoric and the Teaching of Composition Seminar
  • 2025Summer Teaching Apprenticeship Program
  • 2023Kent Johnson Memorial Fund Teaching Workshop Shadowing Group
  • 2023Teaching Assistants Professional Development Program
Dissertation

Mechanistic Transparency and Machine Mentality
Committee: Sven Bernecker (Chair), Annalisa Coliva, Kenny Easwaran, Allison Koslow

This project defends the “mechanistic opacity condition” as a novel epistemic requirement for machine mentality, arguing that justified mental attribution to a system requires its internal operations to remain fundamentally incomprehensible. Methodologically, I argue that the study of machine mentality should be continuous with the study of other minds, best approached via an inference to the best explanation. I then demonstrate that for mechanistically transparent systems, mechanistic explanations surpass mentalistic explanations in causal adequacy, empirical accuracy, parsimony, and predictive power. Computers serve as paradigmatic examples of mechanistically transparent systems, due to both computer programs’ theoretical equivalence to mathematical proofs and real-world software engineering practices.

Hence, I conclude that we cannot justifiably attribute mentality to computers, including those implementing complex contemporary artificial intelligence algorithms. This framework accounts for intuitive responses to prominent thought experiments—including the China Brain, Blockhead, and the Chinese Room—while establishing a principled skepticism regarding AI mentality that avoids biological chauvinism. Finally, I identify two primary ethical consequences: first, a demand for increased AI transparency to mitigate public misattribution of mentality; and second, a necessary shift in AI ethics away from premature concerns over conscious architectures toward immediate safety and transparency considerations.