Wendell Wallach

Wendell Wallach is a consultant, ethicist, and scholar at Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, and a senior advisor to The Hastings Center. He is also the Carnegie-Uehiro Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, a fellow at the Center for Law, Science & Innovation at the Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law (Arizona State University) and a fellow at the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technology. At Yale Wallach chaired the Center's working research group on Technology and Ethics for twelve years, and stepped down from that role in 2019.

Wendell Wallach's latest book "A Dangerous Master: How to keep technology from slipping beyond our control" was published by BASIC Books in June 2015. He also co-authored (with Colin Allen, Indiana University) "Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong" (Oxford University Press), which mapped the then new field of enquiry variously called machine ethics, machine morality, computational morality, or friendly AI. In addition, Wendell is series editor for the eight Volume Library of Essays on the Ethics of Emerging Technology, which was published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group in 2017. He has also authored dozens of article in professional journals.

Wallach has an international reputation as an expert on the ethical and governance challenges posed by emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and neuroscience. He was featured along with Honda's Asimov in the award-winning short film Living with Robots, and has been interviewed and quoted often in leading news media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and BBC News. He has also been interviewed on MSNBC, FOX, the FOX Business Channel, PBS and countless national and local radio shows. He received the World Technology Network award for Ethics in 2014 and for Journalism and Media in 2015, as well as a Fulbright Research Chair at the University of Ottawa for 2015-2016. The World Economic Forum (WEF) appointed Wallach co-chair of its Global Future Council on Technology, Values, and Policy for the 2016-2018 term. Presently he serves on the WEF AI Council.

The 1st International Congress for Governance of AI, for which Wallach was lead organizer, was scheduled to be hosted by the City of Prague in April 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic it was rescheduled two times and then transitioned to an online event for winter/spring 2021. During the pandemic, Wallach started (with Anja Kaspersen) an AI and Equality Initiative (AIEI) at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

Formerly, he was a founder and the President of two computer consulting companies, Farpoint Solutions and Omnia Consulting Inc. Among the clients served by Wallach's companies were PepsiCo International, United Aircraft, and the State of Connecticut.

He is married to Nancy Wallach, who is Director of Research Ethics and Governance at NYU. They live in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Wendell's primary hobbies are building stained glass windows, skiing, and hiking.