Johnny Hartz Søraker

Johnny Hartz Søraker is a philosopher and ethicist. He specializes in technology ethics, particularly in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Søraker earned his PhD from the University of Twente in 2010, focusing on the ethics, ontology and epistemology of virtual worlds. He has also studied at NTNU.

After working as an associate professor at the University of Twente, where he delved into ethical issues related to information technology, Søraker joined Google in 2017. Since 2020, he has worked there as an AI ethicist. In his current role as team lead for Foundational Research, Ethics & SocioTechnology (FoREST) at Google, Søraker is responsible for evaluating ethical issues related to AI development and collaborating with product teams to reduce the risks of new technologies.

Søraker has published and lectured extensively on issues such as the ethical, societal and psychological effects of technology (especially related to the notion of well-being), internet governance and the moral status of information.

He is originally from Trondheim and currently resides in Amsterdam.