PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Fabio Tollon

Fabio Tollon is a philosopher whose research asks whether AI systems can bear moral responsibility and how technology shapes ethical judgments. He studied politics, philosophy and economics at Stellenbosch, completed degrees in philosophy there, and pursued doctoral research at Bielefeld on AI agency and responsibility. His papers examined how artifacts carry values, how responsibility applies to AI, how technology shapes well-being, and how human labour contributes to AI practice. As of October 2026, he is a teaching fellow at Edinburgh and holds research roles at Stellenbosch and the University of Pretoria.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2013–2019

    Degrees at Stellenbosch

    He studies politics, philosophy and economics at Stellenbosch from 2013 to 2016, completes a BA in Philosophy in 2017, and earns an MA in Philosophy in 2019. His MA thesis, “Moral Encounters of the Artificial Kind: Towards a non-anthropocentric account of machine moral agency,” examines machine moral agency.

  2. 2020–2023

    Doctoral research at Bielefeld

    From 2020 to 2023, he pursues doctoral research in philosophy at Bielefeld University through DFG research training group 2073. His thesis asks whether artificial systems can be moral agents and examines responsibility gaps when AI actions leave no human being legitimately responsible.

  3. 2021

    Artifacts and affordances

    In 2021, he publishes “Artifacts and affordances: from designed properties to possibilities for action.” The paper argues that artifacts can embody values through their affordances and shape how people evaluate moral situations.

  4. 2023

    Responsibility gaps and reactive attitudes

    In 2023, he publishes “Responsibility gaps and the reactive attitudes” in AI and Ethics. He argues that an objective attitude toward agential AI fits three senses of responsibility: answerability, attributability, and accountability.

  5. 2024

    Technology and virtue ethics

    In 2024, he introduces a “promises and perils” framework for the soft impacts of emerging technology. He argues that theories of well-being should account for the social and technological contexts that shape human flourishing.

  6. 2025

    Labor behind AI systems

    With S. J. Bennett and Benedetta Catanzariti, he publishes “Everybody knows what a pothole is”: Representations of work and intelligence in AI practice and governance in 2025. The paper examines data acquisition, cleaning and annotation, then traces how those framings shape views of distributed intelligence, labour practices and annotators’ agency.

  7. January 2026

    Engineering responsibility in AI

    In January 2026, he and Enrico Galvagni publish “Engineering responsibility in the age of AI: Amelioration or preservation?” They compare efforts to revise moral responsibility with a strategy that preserves its current meaning for responsibility gaps caused by autonomous systems.

  8. As of October 2026

    Teaching and research roles

    From 2023 to 2026, he is a postdoctoral researcher on Edinburgh’s BRAID programme. As of October 2026, he is a teaching fellow in Edinburgh’s philosophy department, a research fellow at Stellenbosch’s Unit for the Ethics of Technology, and a research associate at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research.

Career

  1. Since 2023University of EdinburghPostdoctoral researcher
  2. NowStellenbosch UniversityResearch fellow
  3. NowCentre for Artificial Intelligence ResearchResearch associate

Education

  1. 2023Bielefeld UniversityDoctoral research
  2. 2019Stellenbosch UniversityMA in Philosophy
  3. 2017Stellenbosch UniversityBA in Philosophy
  4. 2016Stellenbosch University

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Edinburgh. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. Universities had a net outflow of 2,068 moves in AI careersIncludes University of Edinburgh. Our estimates of career flows and median h-index across universities and companies in AI, including the role of joint appointments and earlier academic jobs.
  3. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes University of Edinburgh. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Edinburgh. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Fabio Tollon yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Fabio Tollon - University of Edinburgh Research Explorer research.ed.ac.uk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Fabio Tollon | CAIR cair.org.za. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. AI, Agency, and Responsibility: From New Technologies to Old Problems, and Back Again - Leibniz University Hannover philos.uni-hannover.de. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Ethics of AI Research Publications | CAIR cair.org.za. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Responsibility gaps and the reactive attitudes - University of Edinburgh Research Explorer research.ed.ac.uk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Technology and the situationist challenge to virtue ethics - University of Edinburgh Research Explorer research.ed.ac.uk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. ‘Everybody knows what a pothole is’: Representations of work and intelligence in AI practice and governance - University of Edinburgh Research Explorer research.ed.ac.uk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Engineering responsibility in the age of AI: Amelioration or preservation? - University of Edinburgh Research Explorer research.ed.ac.uk. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. SAIER Vol 7: Contributors | Montreal AI Ethics Institute montrealethics.ai. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. Virtues without borders: humans, avatars and collective agents - avataResponsibility avataresponsibility.ccea.ro. Checked 22 October 2026.
  11. Fabio Tollon | The University of Edinburgh edwebprofiles.ed.ac.uk. Checked 22 October 2026.