Oliver Bendel was born in Ulm in 1968. After studying philosophy and German philology (M.A.) and information science (Dipl.-Inf.-Wiss.) at the University of Konstanz and his first professional stations, he completed his doctorate at the University of St. Gallen (Dr. oec.), on anthropomorphic software agents and early forms of social robots. His main areas of interest in philosophy were the emergence of the concept of race in the 18th century, the pre-Socratics (especially Leucippus and Democritus), René Descartes, David Hume, and animal ethics, while his areas of interest in information science were information ethics and robot ethics.
Bendel worked in Germany and Switzerland as a project manager and headed technical and scientific institutions, including the Competence Center E-Learning at the University of St. Gallen, the Business Communication working group at the Fraunhofer ISST in Dortmund and the Center for Innovation, Media, and Technologies (ZIMT) at the Weingarten University of Applied Sciences, where he also lectured, including a lecture on the history of ideas and development of the artificial creature. In April 2009, he was appointed professor at the FHNW School of Business and employed at the Institute of Information Systems. He is also a lecturer at the FHNW School of Engineering and the FHNW School of Architecture, Construction and Geomatics.
Oliver Bendel focuses on the philosophy of technology with a focus on robots and artificial intelligence. He examines the relationship between humans or animals and machines and asks what the machine of the present and future is, will be and should be like. Since the turn of the millennium, information ethics, machine ethics, and robot ethics (robot philosophy in general) have become his most important disciplines. Books such as “Handbuch Maschinenethik” (Springer VS), “400 Keywords Informationsethik” (Springer Gabler), “450 Keywords Digitalisierung” (Springer Gabler), “Die Moral in der Maschine” (Heise Medien), “Pflegeroboter” (Springer Gabler), “Maschinenliebe” (Springer Gabler), “300 Keywords Soziale Robotik” (Springer Gabler), “Soziale Roboter” (Springer Gabler) and “110 Keywords Wirtschaftsethik” (Springer Gabler) are in these areas. Since 1998, he has published a total of over 600 publications (approx. 250 encyclopedia articles, 70 book contributions and books, otherwise articles in journals, proceedings and practitioner journals).
Oliver Bendel has been an expert and speaker in the German Bundestag and the European Parliament on several occasions and was a permanent member of the jury for the selection of the German Internet Institute (now the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin). As an expert and reviewer, he has worked as an expert and reviewer for various federal ministries, research communities and funding organizations, such as the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology in Vienna, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in Berlin, the Federal Ministry of Health in Berlin, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Berlin, the Scientific Commission of Lower Saxony, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Alexander von Humboldt Professorship and Humboldt Research Fellowship Programme for experienced researchers), the DFG, NWO, SNF, Leading House Asia (ETHZ), and the FRIAS COFUND Fellowship Programme (FCFP).
Oliver Bendel was or is reviewer for journals such as Artificial Intelligence, AI & Society, AI and Ethics, Paladyn (Journal of Behavioral Robotics), MINDS and MACHINES, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications (Springer), Journal of Business Ethics, Frontiers in Psychology, New Ideas in Psychology, Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung, JMIR, TATuP, Ethik in der Medizin, Journal of Responsible Innovation, Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity (Elsevier), Industrie 4. 0 Management, HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik, Marketing Review St. Gallen (MRSG), and Zeitschrift für E-Learning as well as conferences such as AAAI Spring Symposium Series, INSCI, MKWI, CAiSE, WI, REFSQ, ECIS, ICIS, HICSS, HRI, LSR, SII and ICSR.
Since 1999 Oliver Bendel has given numerous lectures, among others at Stanford University, at Qatar University, at the University of Helsinki, at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, at Newcastle University, at Goldsmiths in London, at the University of Potsdam, at the University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg, at the University of Innsbruck, at the University of Vienna, at ETH Zurich, at the University of Zurich, at the Université de Genève, at the Zurich University of the Arts, at the University of Constance, at KIT Karlsruhe, at TU Darmstadt, at Ruhr University Bochum, at the University of Münster, at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, at Schloss Dagstuhl in Wadern, at the Carl Benz House in Ladenburg, at Haus Huth in Berlin, at Stadthaus Ulm, at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, at the House of Electronic Arts in Basel, at the Paul Klee Center in Bern, at the Centre Loewenberg near Bern, the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, the Orient-Institut Istanbul, the Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi in Venice, the Chamber of Commerce in Florence, the Sonesta Fort Lauderdale, the German Bundestag in Berlin and the European Parliament in Brussels.
Oliver Bendel is an associated researcher of the PECoG group (University of Potsdam). He is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), the Freethinkers Association of Switzerland, Animal Rights Switzerland, and the Zurich Art Society. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Daimler and Benz Foundation.