I’m Giovanni Spitale, Spit for most people. I work on the ethics of artificial intelligence, misinformation and public health communication at the University of Zurich, where I co-direct the ITE Lab (Information, Technology and Experimental Ethics) at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine.
I came to ethics through a hospital. In 2009 a bone marrow illness (still alive, no worries) showed me how much depends on people choosing to give something of themselves to others, and on the way you ask them. With Pietro dal Prà I started Climb For Life, a donation campaign in the climbing world. Then I ran communications for a mountaineering apparel company, taught history and philosophy in a high school, and wrote copy for a storytelling studio while research slowly took over.
That route left me with a conviction and a habit. The conviction: ethics works best as a tool that makes things work, rather than a list of limits. The habit: use whatever the question needs, from surveys, interviews and text mining to experiments with language models and plain philosophical analysis. From 2022 to 2025 I was a WHO rapporteur on the ethics of social listening and infodemic management, and most of my papers ask how information, true or false, reaches people, and what we owe them when it does.
I also try to get the work out of the university: books in Italian, the Bioetica da Bar podcast, talks wherever someone asks. Dates, titles and the rest are in the CV.
When I’m not at a desk I’m usually under a paraglider. The hat counts as religious garment: I am an ordained minister of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which champions critical thinking, tolerance, and a sense of humour about the absurd.
Short bio, for programmes and articles
Giovanni Spitale is a bioethicist at the University of Zurich, where he co-directs the ITE Lab (Information, Technology and Experimental Ethics) at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine. He works on the ethics of artificial intelligence, misinformation and public health communication, combining empirical methods with philosophical analysis. He was a WHO rapporteur on the ethics of infodemic management (2022–2025) and holds PhDs in medical sciences and in philosophy. He hosts Bioetica da Bar, a podcast on applied bioethics in Italian.
Giovanni Spitale è bioeticista all’Università di Zurigo, dove co-dirige l’ITE Lab (Information, Technology and Experimental Ethics) dell’Istituto di etica biomedica e storia della medicina. Si occupa di etica dell’intelligenza artificiale, di disinformazione e di comunicazione in sanità pubblica, unendo metodi empirici e analisi filosofica. È stato rapporteur dell’OMS sull’etica dell’infodemic management (2022–2025) ed è dottore di ricerca in scienze mediche e in filosofia. Conduce Bioetica da Bar, podcast di bioetica applicata.