Sven Nyholm is Professor of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence at LMUMunich. He is also Principal Investigator for the Ethics of AI at the Munich Center for Machine Learning. His books include Humans and Robots:Ethics, Agency, and Anthropomorphism (2020), This is Technology Ethics:An Introduction (2023) and The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction (2026).

Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem is a philosopher of science and technology, an AI ethics policy advisor, and a machine ethics researcher. Currently at UP, she is the UNESCO Chair in AI for Community Resilience, Head of the Department of Philosophy, and a senior faculty fellow of the African Institute for Data Science and AI. Emma also leads the AI ethics group at the South African Centre for AI Research (CAIR). She is the current Chairperson of the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), a member of UNESCO’s AI Ethics Experts without Borders Network, and joined the WEF’s Global Future Council on Autonomous Systems in 2025. She has been a member of the Global Academic Network, Centre for AI and Digital Policy, Washington DC since 2023, and has worked on AI governance projects with the African Union Development Agency and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. She is a scientific advisor for the African Centre for AI, and a member of the international advisory board at the Global Centre for AI Governance. She is a member of various other international AI ethics advisory boards ranging from academia (e.g., the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Programme Human Sciences, hosted by Umeå University, Sweden), the inter-governmental sector (e.g., WEF and UNESCO), to the private sector (e.g., SAP SE, EthicEdge). She is an associate editor for Science and Engineering Ethics.

Karabo Maiyane is a researcher, senior lecturer, and Head of Department at the Department of Philosophy at Nelson Mandela University. His research interests include the societal impact of emerging technologies, with a focus on AI applications in healthcare, warfare, education, and the creative sector. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Pretoria, where his doctoral studies examined the intersection of AI ethics and society. Dr Maiyane’s broader academic interests include the ethics of technology, just war theory, ethics of care, healthcare ethics, and African philosophical traditions. Some of his notable contributions include two book chapters: “Robots and Dignity: An Afro-communitarian Argument in Eldercare” and “Autonomous Weapons and the Future of Warfare in Africa,” and a commissioned report on the impact of AI in the cultural and creative sector.

Paige Benton is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Institute for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science (ACEPS) at the University of Johannesburg. Her research sits at the intersection of political philosophy and the philosophy of technology, with a focus on liberal democratic theory, digital justice, and the politics of artificial intelligence. A central concern of her work is how emerging digital technologies erode the conditions that democratic citizenship requires. Dr Benton is Co-PI of the three-year project Safeguarding Democracy in the Age of AI. She serves as Co-editor of AI & Society’s Topical Collection on Indigenous Knowledge Systems and AI, and as Co-chair of the Special Interest Group on the Political Philosophy of Engineering and Technology for the Society for Philosophy and Technology. Her published work appears in TOPOI, Technology and Regulation, and Communications in Computer and Information Science. She has contributed to policy processes at the T20 South Africa and was an invited panellist at the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies’ Round Table on Data Commons and Inclusive Data Capital.