Is an IBM Fellow at IBM Research – Thomas J. Watson Research Center, where he directs research in human-centered trustworthy AI, bridging moral philosophy, machine learning, and systems governance. He earned a B.S. from Cornell University in electrical and computer engineering, and an S.M. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in electrical engineering and computer science.
His work spans several areas of artificial intelligence including value alignment, fairness, creativity, and safety, all of which are grounded in rigorous engagement with moral psychology and non-Western ethical traditions including Vedanta. He co-led IBM’s Science for Social Good initiative, served as general chair for the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, and has developed widely-used open-source tools for AI fairness, explainability, uncertainty quantification, and harm detection. Varshney authored the book “Trustworthy Machine Learning.” He combines technical research with philosophical inquiry into how AI systems can embody dharma while reflecting diverse value frameworks and supporting human flourishing across cultures.
