Iason Gabriel

Iason Gabriel is a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, where he leads the Humanity, Ethics and Alignment team.124 His work focuses on the ethics of artificial intelligence, including topics such as AI value alignment, distributive justice, language ethics, and human rights.13

Background and Education

Gabriel holds a D.Phil in political philosophy from the University of Oxford.1 Before joining Google DeepMind, he taught moral and political philosophy at Oxford University and worked for the United Nations Development Program in Lebanon and Sudan.13

Career at Google DeepMind

Gabriel joined Google DeepMind in August 2017 as a Research Scientist.2 He was promoted to Senior Research Scientist in October 2018 and then to Staff Research Scientist in October 2020.2 As of November 2024, he holds the position of Senior Staff Research Scientist.4

Research Focus

At Google DeepMind, Gabriel's research primarily concentrates on:

• AI value alignment
• Ethics of advanced AI assistants
• Distributive justice in AI
• Language ethics
• Human rights in the context of AI

He is particularly interested in ensuring that AI technology works for the benefit of all and in exploring the relationship between AI and human values.1

Notable Contributions

Gabriel has contributed to several projects promoting responsible innovation in AI, including the creation of the ethics review process at NeurIPS (Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems).3 He has also been recognized as one of the leading thinkers in the field of AI ethics, being featured in the TIME 100 AI list.4

Academic and Professional Affiliations

Throughout his career, Gabriel has held various academic and professional positions, including:

• Fellow in Politics at St John's College, Oxford
• College Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Worcester College, Oxford
• Senior International Consultant for UNDP in Lebanon
• Visiting Researcher at the World Bank Group's Mind, Behavior and Development Unit2

Iason Gabriel's work at the intersection of ethics, political philosophy, and artificial intelligence positions him as a key figure in shaping the ethical considerations surrounding the development and deployment of AI technologies.