PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Émile P. Torres

Émile P. Torres is a moral philosopher whose work connects AI ethics with existential risk and human extinction. They studied philosophy at the University of Maryland and neuroscience at Brandeis, earned a philosophy PhD at Leibniz Universität Hannover, and joined Case Western Reserve’s Inamori Center. They published The End in 2016 and Morality, Foresight, and Human Flourishing in 2017, critiqued longtermism in a 2021 Aeon essay, and coauthored a 2024 paper with Timnit Gebru about the TESCREAL framework and the AGI race. Since October 2025, they are an affiliate at Data & Society.

Born
1982
Links
X, LinkedIn, Bluesky and Mastodon

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2007–2009

    Philosophy and neuroscience degrees

    They earn a BA with honors in philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2007 and an MS in neuroscience at Brandeis University in 2009.

  2. 2016

    The End

    They publish The End: What Science and Religion Tell Us About the Apocalypse in 2016.

  3. 2017

    An introduction to existential risk

    They publish Morality, Foresight, and Human Flourishing: An Introduction to Existential Risks in 2017.

  4. 2021

    An Aeon essay on longtermism

    In 2021, they publish the Aeon essay “Against longtermism,” arguing that its focus on humanity’s far future can increase the risk of extreme harms to people alive today.

  5. 2023

    A PhD and Case Western postdoc

    In 2023, they receive a philosophy PhD from Leibniz Universität Hannover and join Case Western Reserve University’s Inamori Center as a postdoctoral scholar, focusing on biotechnology and quantum computing.

  6. 2024

    Human Extinction and TESCREAL

    In 2024, Routledge publishes their book Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation. They coauthor “The TESCREAL bundle” with Timnit Gebru, arguing that the race to build AGI draws on the Anglo-American eugenics tradition.

  7. Since 2025

    Affiliate at Data & Society

    In September 2025, they are a visiting postdoctoral scholar at Case Western Reserve University’s Inamori Center for Ethics and Excellence and discuss tech elites’ vision of “network states” in a Wired interview. In October 2025, they join Data & Society as an affiliate; their work focuses on the ethics of emerging technologies, especially AI, and human extinction.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Émile P. Torres yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Émile P. Torres xriskology.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Why longtermism is the world’s most dangerous secular credo | Aeon Essays aeon.co. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. New Faces at the Inamori Center | Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence case.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Ten New Affiliates Join Data & Society datasociety.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence | First Monday firstmonday.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Inamori Center’s Émile Torres explains tech elites’ vision of ‘network states’ and their approach to progress | CWRU Newsroom | Case Western Reserve University case.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.