Cansu Canca

Cansu Canca is a philosopher and the founder and Director of AI Ethics Lab, one of the first initiatives focusing exclusively on advising practitioners and conducting multidisciplinary research on AI ethics. She is also the Director of Responsible AI Practice at the Institute for Experiential AI and a Research Associate Professor in Philosophy at Northeastern University, with affiliations with the Ethics Institute in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and the DATA Initiative at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business. With her team of computer scientists, philosophers, and legal scholars, she provides hands-on, research- based consulting in integrating ethics analyses into AI innovation and implementing responsible AI governance and strategy for organizations.

Canca has a PhD in philosophy with a specialization in applied ethics. She serves as an expert on various advisory and editorial boards and advises Fortune 500 companies on ethical matters. She works with the World Economic Forum’s AI Governance Alliance in developing guidelines and best practices for “Responsible AI Application and Transformation” and “Responsible AI Stewardship for Investors.” Canca co-designed and co-developed the “Toolkit for Responsible AI Innovation in Law Enforcement” for UNICRI Centre for AI & Robotics and the INTERPOL, serving as their AI Ethics and Governance Expert consultant.

Canca primarily works on ethics of technology, having previously worked extensively on ethics and health. Prior to AI Ethics Lab, she was on the full-time faculty at the University of Hong Kong, and an ethics researcher at the Harvard Law School, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, National University of Singapore, Osaka University, and the World Health Organization. Among others, she is also a founding editor for the international peer-reviewed journal AI & Ethics (Springer Nature); serves as an ethics expert for EU- and NIH-funded research projects focusing on the ethics of AI, robotics, human enhancement, and law enforcement AI technologies; and chairs the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) AI Ethics Experts Network Criteria Committee and Northeastern’s IRB.

Canca, a two-time TEDx speaker, has delivered over 100 talks on AI ethics, including keynotes at Harvard Business School and the U.S. Department of Justice. Her TEDxCambridge talk, "How to Solve AI’s Ethical Puzzles," is among her notable presentations. She was listed among the “30 Influential Women Advancing AI in Boston” and the “100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics;” nominated for the VentureBeat’s “Women in AI” award; and recognized with Mozilla’s Rise25 “Change Agent” award. She is also the first technology and AI ethicist in Turkey.