John Tasioulas

John Tasioulas is a Greek-Australian moral and legal philosopher who became the first director of Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI in 2020. Born in Wollongong in 1964, he studied law and philosophy at the University of Melbourne, went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and later held chairs at University College London and King's College London. At Oxford, he argued for a humanistic ethics of AI built on plural values, procedures and participation, and in 2023 he shared a Schmidt Futures AI2050 award with Yale political scientist Hélène Landemore. In 2023, he also joined a new high-level AI advisory committee announced by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He stepped down as director in September 2025 and is now based in Sydney, where he is an AI2050 Senior Fellow and writes the Substack Setting Out for Ithaka.

Now at: University of Oxford and Government of Greece
Born: 1964
Badges: Boomerang
Wayfarer

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

1964–1989

A Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford

He is born in Wollongong, New South Wales, in 1964 to parents who migrated from Greece, and studies philosophy and law at the University of Melbourne. As the 1989 Rhodes Scholar for Victoria, he goes to Balliol College, Oxford, where he writes a DPhil thesis on moral relativism supervised by Joseph Raz.
1992–2010

Glasgow and Corpus Christi, Oxford

He lectures in jurisprudence at the University of Glasgow from 1992 to 1998. From 1998 to 2010, he is Reader in Moral and Legal Philosophy at Oxford and a tutorial fellow in philosophy at Corpus Christi College. In 2010, Oxford University Press publishes The Philosophy of International Law, a volume he co-edits.
2011–2020

Chairs at UCL and King's

From 2011 to 2014, he is Quain Professor of Jurisprudence in the Faculty of Laws at University College London. In 2014, he becomes Yeoh Professor of Politics, Philosophy and Law and director of the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre at King's College London's Dickson Poon School of Law, posts he holds until 2020. As a 2014–2015 Lisa Goldberg Fellow at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute, he works on a monograph, Human Rights: From Morality to Law.
2020

Director of Oxford's AI ethics institute

In September 2020, Oxford names him the inaugural director of its Institute for Ethics in AI, a unit of the Philosophy Faculty announced as part of a £150m gift from Stephen A. Schwarzman. He takes up the post in October 2020, together with a professorship of ethics and legal philosophy.
2021

A humanistic ethics of AI

In a June 2021 essay for the Ada Lovelace Institute, he argues that the arts and humanities reveal AI development as a series of consequential human choices that ethics must frame. In his November 2021 University of Hamburg lecture, Why We Need Ethics in AI, he questions the preference-based utilitarianism of Stuart Russell's Human Compatible and calls for a humanistic ethic built on plural values, the value of procedures and participation.
February 2023

An AI2050 Senior Fellowship

Yale announces in February 2023 that he and political scientist Hélène Landemore share a Schmidt Futures AI2050 award for a three-year project, with Tasioulas holding the program's Senior Fellowship. Their project asks whether AI creates a need for new human rights, whether AI tools can support more participatory and deliberative democracy, and whether people should have a right to decisions by humans in some domains.
October 2023

Greece's AI advisory committee

In October 2023, he joins a new high-level AI advisory committee announced by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, alongside members such as Constantinos Daskalakis. The committee is set up to formulate policy recommendations and guidelines for Greece's national AI strategy.
As of October 2026

Public philosophy from Sydney

He resigns as director of Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI in September 2025. The Sydney-based Greek-Australian philosopher is a Senior Fellow in Schmidt Sciences's AI2050 program and continues the humanistic AI ethics project with Hélène Landemore. On his Substack, Setting Out for Ithaka, he writes about liberalism, human rights and the ethics of AI, with posts tied to his book project Saving Liberalism from Itself.

Career

From 2023Government of GreeceMember
2014–2020King's College LondonYeoh Professor of Politics, Philosophy and Law
2014–2020The Dickson Poon School of LawDirector
2014–2015Harvard UniversityLisa Goldberg Fellow
2011–2014University College LondonQuain Professor of Jurisprudence
1998–2010University of OxfordReader in Moral and Legal Philosophy, Inaugural Director
1992–1998University of GlasgowLecturer in Jurisprudence