Marco Crisostomo Evangelista Leone

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT MARCO CRISOSTOMO EVANGELISTA LEONE

The accelerating development of increasingly sophisticated AI systems poses an urgent ethical challenge: how do we reliably detect consciousness in machines, and what follows if we get it wrong?My research develops philosophical frameworks for testing artificial phenomenal consciousness, with implications extending to broader questions of sentience, sapience, and moral status. I focus on the contamination problem in existing behavioural approaches, where systems trained on human consciousness discourse can mimic subjective experience without possessing it. Grounding my work in semantic externalism, I aim to establish theory-neutral detection criteria conservative enough to preclude false attributions of moral status, yet sensitive enough to identify genuine experience. The goal is to bridge foundational philosophy of mind with the practical demands of AI welfare and governance policy.Beyond consciousness detection, my interests extend to digital minds welfare, AI moral patienthood and legal personhood, post-AGI governance, and political economy analyses of how increasingly capable systems might reshape social and economic structures. As Founder and President of the Alan Turing Society at Northeastern University London, I bring together researchers and speakers across the technical and philosophical dimensions of AI, where questions about artificial sentience meet concrete engineering and policy challenges.My broader interests include ontology, epistemology, philosophy of science, and cognitive science. I also write speculative fiction exploring consciousness and AI, using narrative as a lens for stress-testing future scenarios and their ethical implications.Currently completing an MA in Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence at Northeastern University London (current average: Distinction), following a First Class Honours Philosophy degree from Birkbeck, University of London.Let\'s connect if you\'re working on AI consciousness, AI ethics, or sentience policy!