Sophia (Siyu) Zhou
Doctoral Fellow
Professorship for Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
Personal information
Sophia began her PhD in October 2026 at the Professorship of AI Ethics. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the Liberal Arts College at Sun Yat-sen University and an M.A. in Philosophy from LMU Munich. Her bachelor’s thesis drew on the theory of alienation to examine relationships between human players and characters in otome games. Her master’s thesis, supervised by Prof. Dr. Sven Nyholm, drew on the properties view of romantic love to investigate whether humans and AI chatbots can fall in love with one another
Sophia is interested in ethical questions and practical challenges arising within interpersonal relationships, including intimate and romantic relationships, friendships, and parent-child relationships. Her research interests centre on how AI shapes both human-AI relationships and relationships between human beings. She enjoys conversation and interpersonal exchanges, and regards communication as an essential foundation of philosophical research.
Research interests
- AI Ethics
- Philosophy of love
- Ethics of relationships
- Feminist theory