Steven Umbrello
Profile
Steven Umbrello is the Managing Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and a research fellow at the University of Turin, where he directs the Ethical Research Center on Anthropology and Technology. His work applies the theology of Bernard Lonergan to artificial intelligence, asking what machines can and cannot do to human knowing, judgment, and dignity. He is also an associate researcher at the Collège des Bernardins, where he works on digital humanism, sits on the steering committee of the Catholic Turing Test Initiative (Builders AI Forum), and holds the Italian national scientific habilitation (ASN, 11/C3).
He is the author of Vigilant Hope: Preserving Human Dignity in an Age of Artificial Intelligence (Ascension Press, 2026), Can AI Ever Be Human? Consciousness Explored (The Catholic University of America Press, 2026, with Paul O'Hara), Mediated by Meaning: Consciousness and Conversion in the Thought of Jordan Peterson (Pickwick, 2026), L'etica di Bernard Lonergan (Città Nuova, 2026), and Technology Ethics: Responsible Innovation and Design Strategies (Polity, 2024).
He edits the International Journal of Technoethics and co-edits Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics. Previously he was a postdoctoral fellow at Delft University of Technology (TechEthos, H2020), a researcher at the Center for Religious Studies of the Bruno Kessler Foundation, and a Stiftung Südtiroler Sparkasse Global Fellow at Eurac Research.
Publications
Key Publications
- Umbrello, Steven, 2025. “Pope Leo XIV and the New Social Questions of Artificial Intelligence,” The Linacre Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 3, 354–357. DOI: 10.1177/00243639251358893
- Mehnert, Wenzel; Bernstein, Michael J.; Umbrello, Steven; Csabi, Alexandra; Nishi, Masafumi; Mandzhieva, Renata; Alliaj, Greta; Vermaas, Pieter E., 2026. “Ethical Playgrounds: Unveiling a Serious Game for Technological Ethics within the TechEthos Project,” Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Vol. 13, Article 484. DOI: 10.1057/s41599-026-06645-x
- Umbrello, Steven, 2026. “Industry Self-Flagging and the Insufficiency Critique of Alignment,” Journal of Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Vol. 36, No. 2, 1–7. DOI: 10.55613/jeet.v36i2.251
- Dennis, Matthew; Ishmaev, Georgy; Umbrello, Steven, van den Hoven, Jeroen, (eds.) 2022. Values for a Post-Pandemic Future, Cham: Springer. ISBN: 978-3-031-08423-2
- Umbrello, Steven, 2022. “Designing Genetic Engineering Technologies for Human Values,” Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics, Vol. XXIV, No. 2, 481-510.
- Umbrello, Steven, 2022. “The Role of Engineers in Harmonising Human Values for AI Systems Design,” Journal of Responsible Technology, Vol. 10, (July), 100031. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrt.2022.100031
- Umbrello, Steven, 2021. “Coupling Levels of Abstraction in Understanding Meaningful Human Control of Autonomous Weapons: A Two-Tiered Approach,” Ethics and Information Technology. Vol. 23, No.3, 455–464. DOI: 10.1007/s10676-021-09588-w
- Umbrello, Steven; Capasso, Marianna; Balistreri, Maurizio; Pirni, Alberto; Merenda, Federica, 2021. “Value Sensitive Design to Achieve the UN SDGs with AI: A Case of Elderly Care Robots,” Minds and Machines, Special Issue: “Social Robots: Ethical and Anthropological Issues,” Vol. 31, No. 3, 395–419. DOI: 10.1007/s11023-021-09561-y
- Umbrello, Steven; van de Poel, Ibo, 2021. “Mapping Value Sensitive Design onto AI for Social Good Principles,” AI and Ethics, Vol. 1, No. 3, 283–296. DOI: 10.1007/s43681-021-00038-3