Steven Umbrello

Steven UmbrelloDr. Steven Umbrello studied Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto (Hons. BA), Epistemology, Ethics and Mind at the University of Edinburgh (MSc) and Science and Technology Studies at York University (MA). He completed my Ph.D. on the ethics and design of military AI at the Northwestern Italian Philosophy Consortium.

Additionally, Dr. Umbrello served as a junior associate at the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute from 2013 to 2018, where his primary research and authorship was on atomically precise manufacturing (APM) and other nanotechnology. He was previously a researcher at the Bruno Kessler Foundation in 2023, working on the ethics of generative AI as well as a Stiftung Südtiroler Sparkasse Global Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at Eurac Research. Similarly, Dr. Umbrello is currently an expert consultant at Ethical Intelligence Associates Ltd., where he provides consultancy for companies to gain a competitive edge by mitigating ethical risks and formulating custom tools and protocols to embed ethics into their practices that align with current ethical guidelines and company values.

Currently, Dr. Umbrello's main area of research revolves around Value Sensitive Design (VSD), its philosophical foundation as well as its potential application to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Publications

Conceptualizing Policy in Value Sensitive Design: A Machine Ethics Approach
Conceptualizing Policy in Value Sensitive Design: A Machine Ethics Approach
Steven Umbrello. © 2021. 18 pages.
The value sensitive design (VSD) approach to designing emerging technologies for human values is taken as the object of study in this chapter. VSD has traditionally been...
Atomically Precise Manufacturing and Responsible Innovation: A Value Sensitive Design Approach to Explorative Nanophilosophy
Atomically Precise Manufacturing and Responsible Innovation: A Value Sensitive Design Approach to Explorative Nanophilosophy
Steven Umbrello. © 2019. 21 pages.
Although continued investments in nanotechnology are made, atomically precise manufacturing (APM) to date is still regarded as speculative technology. APM, also known as...
International Journal of Technoethics (IJT)
International Journal of Technoethics (IJT)
Steven Umbrello. Est. 2010.
The International Journal of Technoethics (IJT) advances scholarship on the impact of ethics in technological advances and applications, both in established areas (e.g. computer...