Delmo Mattos is a Professor of Ethics in Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Humanities (IEFH), Division of Fundamental Sciences, at the Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA), Brazil. He leads the Research Group Innovation and Ethical Dilemmas of Artificial Intelligence (IDEIA/CNPq) and coordinates LabIDEIA (Laboratory for Research and Outreach on Innovation and Ethical Dilemmas in Artificial Intelligence – ITA).
He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He has conducted research and academic activities at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Yale University, New York University, and the Federal University of Maranhão.
In Political Philosophy, he coordinates the Hobbes Working Group of the National Association of Postgraduate Studies in Philosophy (ANPOF) and has been a member of the European Hobbes Society since 2020. Since 2026, he has also been a member of the Society for Philosophy of AI.
His research lies at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence Ethics, Political Philosophy, and Philosophy of Technology, with particular emphasis on modern contractualism and, especially, the thought of Thomas Hobbes.
In the field of AI Ethics, his research focuses on questions concerning responsibility attribution in autonomous systems, the responsibility gap, algorithmic explainability, machine ethics, and the conditions for the possibility of artificial moral agency. His work integrates questions of ethics, political philosophy, technology, and innovation.
His research in Political Philosophy engages particularly with modern contractualism and the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, exploring concepts such as sovereignty, representation, legitimacy, freedom, and normative rationality. At the same time, his work engages directly with the Philosophy of Technology, examining how technoscientific rationality transforms social practices, redistributes responsibility, and generates new ethical challenges.
