John Zoltner – AI Child Safety & Tech for Social Impact
I design ways to measure what AI systems do with children, and convene technology companies, researchers, regulators, and child-protection experts to make AI systems safer for their users and more effective at generating positive social impact.
I'm the Founder and CEO of AIChildSafety.org, AI4SocialImpact, and multiple initiatives that use technology to improve society and an independent advisor to technology companies, foundations, and social-sector organizations on AI's risks and opportunities for children. Each year I take on a small number of board, advisory, consulting, and speaking engagements.
Based between Portland, Oregon and Santiago, Chile. I work in English and Spanish.
Initiatives I founded or led
AIChildSafety.orgFounder and CEO. Nonprofit for research, implementation, and advocacy, founded 2025.
DatAgroDesigned and product-managed mobile information services for smallholder farmers.
Childhood and AI Lab Research FellowshipFounder. 66 researchers in 23 countries, launched 2026.
Safe Digital ChildhoodCreated and directed the initiative at Save the Children, 2018–2025.
AI4SocialImpactFounder. Consulting practice for responsible AI adoption.
TechLab at FHI 360Founded and directed the Lab, 2012–2018.
For more than twenty-five years, John Zoltner has been an early advocate for using emerging technologies to meet social, educational, and economic development challenges in communities, governments, and nonprofits. John is the Founder and CEO of AIChildSafety.org, a nonprofit ensuring AI amplifies rather than diminishes children's capacity to think, learn, and create and of AI4SocialImpact.org, a consulting group that builds capacity and provides technical support for AI-driven social change. He has led work ranging from early efforts to eliminate the digital divide, to the use of mobile technology to support smallholder farmers and public health systems, and now, the promise and peril of AI for children. A serial social entrepreneur, John also created the Safe Digital Childhood initiative at Save the Children, founded the TechLab at FHI 360, and launched the Childhood and AI Lab Research Fellowship, which supports 66 scholars in 23 countries studying AI's effects on childhood. In 2025, World Leaders in Data and AI named John the recipient of the AI for Good Impact Award .
Impact at a glance
Core focus areas
Founder of high-impact initiatives
Created and led initiatives that close the digital divide, protect children from digital harm, help mission-driven organizations use AI responsibly, and build the global evidence base on AI's effects on childhood.
Developer of technology tools for safety and social impact
Product-managed DatAgro and DataDyne's Mobile Information Platform; at FHI 360's TechLab, managed product managers, some leading teams of two or three, and a seven-person software development team; and co-developed open-source platforms serving children, farmers, fishers, healthcare workers, and frontline humanitarians around the world.
Advisor on child safety, AI governance, and digital rights
Created and chaired a Technology Advisory Board at Save the Children with trust-and-safety leaders from six major technology platforms. Co-chair of the Technology Industry Working Group of the UN Protection through Online Participation initiative. Member of the World Economic Forum Global Coalition for Digital Safety and of a working group at the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute. Serves on the External Advisory Board of Western Sydney University's Young and Resilient Research Centre.
Working at the intersection of AI and social impact?
Funders, partners, researchers, and journalists welcome – and if your organization is facing AI's impact on children or the social sector, let's talk about working together.