How We Work Together

Strategic ethics advice for teams building AI where the hard questions live beyond what regulation can answer.

I understand the technical realities of what you're building, the legal landscape you're operating in, and the ethical dimensions of the challenge you're facing. My expertise is built on several academic disciplines, including philosophy of technology, engineering & research ethics, information law, five years working as an ethicist inside Google's AI teams, work as an tech law attoreney and tech policy advisor at the EU.

Find Your Starting Point

Choose the scenario that matches where you are:

"We have a critical decision to make..."
→ Bearing Check - 30- or 60-minute consultation for urgent clarity

"We're building something with no legal or ethical precedent..."
→ Precedent Brief - 4-6 page analysis of your ethical terrain

"The regulation applies, but it doesn't answer our hardest questions..."
→ Normative Gap Analysis - Where compliance ends and complicated responsibility begins

"We need to understand who is affected by this system and how..."
→ Ethical Risk Profile - Context-specific ethical analysis of your deployment

"We're setting out on a new project and need to align on what 'responsible' means here..."
→ Moral Imagination - 1- or 2-day intensive workshop

"We need to see what's coming before it derails us..."
→ Ethical Horizon Scan - Strategic foresight for your roadmap

"Our values and our practice aren't aligned..."
→ Responsibility Audit - Multi-stakeholder diagnostic

Services by Engagement Depth

The Sounding Board

Quick Clarity (<1 Week)

Bearing Check - 30- 60-minute consultation
For teams facing urgent decisions in uncharted territory. Get rapid ethical orientation when time is critical.

Meeting Partnership - Prepared participation
For high-stakes decisions needing ethical presence. I join your critical meetings with context and an ability to parse out responsible paths forward.

Precedent Brief - 4-6 page report
For teams building where the law is silent or where it speaks but leaves your real question unanswered. Receive defensible reasoning grounded in ethics, legal analysis, and case precedent.

Strategic Guidance (2-8 Weeks)

Normative Gap Analysis - Strategic report
For teams that have been told they're compliant but suspect compliance isn't enough. I map where the regulatory framework is incomplete, internally contradictory, or ethically insufficient for your specific context, and help you develop a position that goes beyond the legal floor. Legislation like the EU AI Act, the GDPR, and product liability rules set boundaries. They do not resolve what fairness requires in your deployment, what meaningful human oversight looks like for your system, or what you owe the people your technology affects. That is what this analysis provides.

Ethical Risk Profile - Deployment-specific analysis
For teams preparing to deploy AI in consequential settings. I assess who is affected by your system, what values are at stake, where power asymmetries emerge, what meaningful recourse looks like for someone your system fails, and which design choices encode normative commitments your team has not yet recognized. The deliverable is a substantive ethical risk map of your specific deployment context.

Horizon Scan - Landscape analysis
For R&D leaders planning 6-24 months ahead. I identify emerging ethical risks, track regulatory shifts (enforcement timelines, standard-setting, legislative amendments), and flag strategic opportunities before they arrive. Covers the evolving implementation landscape alongside the broader ethical terrain.

Responsibility Audit - Multi-stakeholder diagnostic
For teams suspecting misalignment between stated values and actual practice. Get clear visibility into gaps and actionable recommendations.

RO Framework - Methodology
For teams needing to convert ethical principles into engineering requirements. Build defensible systems with clear responsibility objectives.

The Imagineers

Team Workshops and Training

Moral Imagination Workshop - 2-day intensive workshop
For teams ready for full ethics discovery with lasting team alignment. Explore consequence spaces and build shared ethical language. We developed this workshop at Google and ran it with countless teams.
See the underlying paper here: Engaging engineering teams through moral imagination (pdf ↗)

Precedent Stress-Tests - Half-day workshop
For engineering teams needing consequence visualization. Pressure-test your technical decisions before they become precedents.

Ethics Academy - Training program
For organizations building internal ethics capacity. Goes well beyond the AI literacy requirements that regulations now mandate. I equip your teams to identify ethical stakes, reason through trade-offs, and recognize when they are making normative choices that feel like technical ones.

Ongoing Embedded Support

Embedded Ethicist - Fractional advisory
For teams building at the frontier who need continuous ethical counsel. Regular access, deep context, strategic partnership. This is where I help you navigate the ongoing stream of judgment calls that no single engagement can anticipate: new deployment contexts, regulatory updates, stakeholder concerns, and the evolving capabilities of your own systems.

What Makes This Practice Different

This work is not about compliance or regulatory readiness. I do the hands-on ethical work with engineers, researchers, and product leaders that sits underneath and beyond those exercises.

I provide reasoned normative judgment on questions where the law is silent, ambiguous, or insufficient for technical guidance. For example, when the AI Act says "adequate," I can help articulate what adequacy requires for your context and defend that position. When competing values conflict (e.g. transparency against privacy, safety against access, individual autonomy against collective welfare) I structure the deliberation and help your team reach positions you can stand behind with pride.

I also say no: If you are looking for an ethics stamp of approval rather than genuine ethical engagement, we are not a good fit.

You'll Get Maximum Value If...

Custom Approaches Welcome

These formats are based on what's worked before, but every challenge is unique. If you have a specific situation that doesn't fit these models, I'm happy to design a bespoke engagement.

How We Start

  1. You reach out — Describe your challenge in a few sentences
  2. Free 15-minute call — We discuss whether I'm the right fit
  3. Proposal within 48 hours — Clear scope, timeline, and investment. Let me know if it's more urgent.
  4. We begin — Kick off as soon as you're ready

Ready to Start?

Book a 15-minute intro call — No prep needed, just bring your challenge.

Or email me directly: enquiries@benzevenbergen.com