Susan Schneider

Timeline

1. 1993–2003

   Berkeley and a Rutgers doctorate

   She earns a B.A. in economics with honors from the University of California, Berkeley in 1993. At Rutgers University she works with Jerry Fodor and completes a Ph.D. in philosophy in 2003.

2. 2011

   A language of thought book

   MIT Press publishes her book The Language of Thought: A New Philosophical Direction in 2011. It examines different computational theories of thinking, building on the work of Jerry Fodor, with whom she studied.

3. 2018

   A test for machine consciousness

   Smithsonian Magazine’s April 2018 cover story discusses the test for AI consciousness that she develops with Edwin Turner. She also proposes a chip test, under which a machine with the same parts that could support human consciousness might itself be conscious.

4. 2019

   Artificial You

   Princeton University Press publishes her book Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind in 2019. The book considers the possibilities, definitions and ethical issues of machine consciousness, and it examines mind design and brain–machine interfaces.

5. 2019–2020

   NASA and Library of Congress chairs

   She is the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation in 2019–2020. She also serves as a Distinguished Scholar Chair at the Library of Congress. Her astrobiology work argues that the most intelligent alien life is likely to be superintelligent AI.

6. 2020

   Dietrich Professor at FAU

   In 2020, she moves from the University of Connecticut, where she is a professor of philosophy and cognitive science and director of the AI, Mind and Society Research Group, to Florida Atlantic University as William F. Dietrich Professor of Philosophy, jointly appointed to its Brain Institute. The Center for the Future Mind launches there in November 2020 as a collaboration between the College of Arts and Letters and the Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute, and she is its founding director.

7. 2025

   Organizing Mindfest 2025

   In 2025, she organizes Mindfest, the annual conference of the Center for the Future Mind, which spends two days on the rise of AI chatbots and the nature of consciousness. The Center partners with the PBS television show Closer to Truth to showcase interviews with many of the conference speakers.

8. As of October 2026

   Leading FAU’s AI and mind center

   As of October 2026, she directs Florida Atlantic University’s Center for the Future of AI, Mind and Society, serves as William F. Dietrich Distinguished Professor, and co-directs the Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics Lab at FAU’s Gruber Sandbox. In April 2026, she co-chairs the workshop “Varieties of Non-Human Consciousness” at The Science of Consciousness conference and speaks in the plenary “Can AI Be Conscious?”