Leora Urim Sung

I'm a postdoctoral fellow in AI ethics at the Technion, conducting research on LLMs and human flourishing. 

Before this, I was a postdoctoral fellow at University College London, where I also completed a PhD (2023) under the supervision of Joe Horton. I've also been a visiting researcher and a Global Priorities Fellow at the Global Priorities Institute (University of Oxford). 

My doctoral work was primarily on the numbers problem, defending a pro tanto rational obligation to save the many. 

I'm currently interested in the ethics of AI, moral aggregation, the ethics of procreation, and the demands of beneficence.

You can reach me at leora.sung.17@ucl.ac.uk.

Publications

1. 'Empathetic Large Language Models, the Social Capacities, and Human Flourishing', forthcoming in Inquiry (with Avigail Ferdman).

We assess empathetic LLMs through a perfectionist lens, arguing that their use as AI companions risks impoverishing the social capacities necessary for human flourishing.

2. 'Time Bias and Altruism', Mind (2025), 134, pp. 373–396.

I argue that the demands of beneficence are stronger than we think, because giving to charity tends to affect our distant-future interests, rather than our present ones. 

3. 'Supererogation, Suberogation, and Maximizing Expected Choiceworthiness', Canadian Journal of Philosophy (2024), 53, pp. 418-432. 

I argue that MEC is stuck between a rock and a hard place: it is either too demanding, or it fails to make room for acts we generally regard to be supererogatory. I offer a solution which gets it out of this conundrum. 

4. 'Never Just Save the Few', Utilitas (2022), 34, pp. 275–288. 

I argue that we should save the many over the few, just in case Taurek is wrong and the numbers do count.