Delaney McLaughlin
Applied Ethics & Policy · Duke University
Hi, I'm Delaney McLaughlin, and I'm a Duke graduate student studying Applied Ethics and Policy, concentrating in both technology ethics & policy and bioethics & science policy.
My passion is AI governance, especially what happens when AI moves into spaces involving real human vulnerability, mental health, caregiving, and clinical decision-making. I've spent the past year trying to understand how we build accountability structures grounded in enforceable policy frameworks. That's led me to work on everything from evaluating agentic AI monitoring platforms for healthcare deployment to building HALT, a benchmark that tests whether AI systems know when to stop.
Outside of governance and policy work, I'm drawn to the harder philosophical questions surrounding these issues: when is artificial companionship ethically permissible? What do we owe people when AI fails them in high-stakes moments? I don't think those questions have clean answers yet, but exploring these concepts roots us in a deeper understanding of how AI impacts us today.
