Sway is a research project developed at Carnegie Mellon University by Simon Cullen and Nicholas DiBella. Follow our work on AI discussion facilitation on X and Youtube: @swaybeta
Sway is supported by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and by Dietrich College and the Open Forum for AI.
Simon Cullen is a faculty member and Dietrich College AI and Education Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. He developed the award-winning Dangerous Ideas in Science and Society course at CMU, helping students to explore diverse viewpoints on polarizing topics by teaching them the art of constructive disagreement. His research combines philosophy, cognitive science, and educational technology to improve reasoning, communication, and understanding across moral and political divides. His work has been published in Science Advances, Nature Science of Learning, Cognition, and the Review of Philosophy and Psychology. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University and has a background in the psychology of reasoning, moral psychology, ethics, and the philosophy of cognitive science.
Nicholas DiBella is an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellow based in the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. His research spans epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of probability, with a focus on developing methods to improve reasoning and communication in contexts involving uncertainty. His work has been published in The Philosophical Review, Philosophy of Science, and Synthese. He holds a B.S. in Physics from MIT and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University. Drawing on his interdisciplinary background, Nicholas works at the intersection of philosophy, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence to enhance decision-making and foster constructive dialogue across diverse perspectives.