Professor Luciano Floridi to lead Digital Ethics Center at Yale University
Professor Luciano Floridi, Fellow by Special Election at Exeter College, will be the Founding Director of Yale’s new Digital Ethics Center. Floridi is currently Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the Oxford Internet Institute and Director of the Digital Ethics Lab. Outside Oxford, he is Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Bologna. He will join Yale this autumn as Professor of Cognitive Science.
Professor Floridi is among the world’s most prominent philosophers. His research primarily concerns Digital Ethics, the Ethics of AI, the Philosophy of Information, and Philosophy of Technology. He has previously worked as an ethicist for Google, as the chair of the Advisory Board of the European Data Protection Supervisor’s 2018 International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, co-chair of the Ethics in Data Science Working Group in the British Cabinet Office, co-author of the UNESCO Code of Ethics for the Information Society, and chair of the UK Parliamentary Commission on Technology Ethics. Last year, Italy awarded its highest honour to Professor Floridi, the title of Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. This is one of Professor Floridi’s many prestigious awards, with others including the IBM Thinker Award and the Premio alla Conoscenza, or the ‘Knowledge Award,’ the most celebrated scientific prize within Italy’s university system.
Yale’s new Center for Digital Ethics will seek to provide an internationally recognised hub for the study of the governance, ethical, legal, and social implications of digital technologies and their human, societal, and environmental impact. The Center is deeply engaged with informing and steering emerging policy initiatives on the socio-ethical value and implications of AI, digital technologies, and their applications. It sponsors public discussions that build an understanding of the socio-ethical and socio-legal aspects of digital technologies. Visitors and speakers include academics and researchers as well as civil servants, members of the technology industry, policymakers and lawmakers, and experts in culture and mass media.
Congratulations to Professor Floridi for this exceptional achievement!
