Caught in The AI Matrix
AI is often framed as an unstoppable force for progress, but The AI Matrix: Profits, Power, Politics asks who actually benefits? Drawing on the authors’ analysis of AI through the lens of power, profit and geopolitics, this book talk explores the tension between technological ambition and the public good. As the EU and the Dutch government increasingly champion digital sovereignty, the evening asks how far those plans really go, how realistic they are under current policies, and whether they can deliver technology that works for everyone. In conversation with today’s policy agenda, this evening takes stock of digital independence, democratic control, and the promise of “Technology for All.”
In conversation with Daniel Mügge Professor of Political Arithmetic at University of Amsterdam Corinne Cath Interim Director of Digital at human rights NGO ARTICLE 19 Felienne Hermans Professor of Computer Science Education at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Femke Snelting Researcher, Artist, Administrator at The Institute for Technology in the Public InterestDaniel Mügge is Professor of Political Arithmetic at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). As leader of the NWO Vici project RegulAite, he investigates how the EU governs artificial intelligence and how these politics are shaped by global geopolitical and economic competition. At the UvA, he is also co-founder of the research platform and the research priority area AI & Politics. Before starting his work on AI, Daniel explored the political underbelly of macroeconomic statistics with his FickleFormulas project. A political economist by training, he has been a visiting researcher at Harvard’s Center for European Studies, the London School of Economics and the Freie Universität Berlin, his alma mater.
Dr. Corinne Cath is an anthropologist of the computing industry, who wrote their PhD at the Oxford Internet Institute. They are currently the Interim Director of Digital at human rights NGO ARTICLE 19 — where they lead a team focused on countering the power of big tech, with a focus on infrastructure: such as satellite internet, cloud computing and AI, networks and deep sea cables. They are also a co-founder of Leitmotiv, a new think tank researching the impact of digital economy on the environment. Before ARTICLE 19, Corinne did a post doc in cloud computing at the University of Delft, as part of the Algosoc consortium. In their free time, they love protesting data centers and building castles in the cloud.
Felienne Hermans is a professor of Computer Science Education at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She also works as a high-school CS teacher one day a week at Open Schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer. Felienne is the creator of the Hedy programming language, a gradual and multi-lingual programming language designed for teaching and author of the book “The Programmer’s Brain” a book that helps programmers understand how their brain works and how to use it more effectively. In 2021, Felienne was awarded the Dutch Prize for ICT research. She writes for Dutch newspaper Volkskrant every month and writes a weekly newsletter on computer science, AI and many other things.
Femke Snelting develops methods, situations and disobedient action-research on computational infrastructure and its implications. With Miriyam Aouragh, Seda Gürses, Helen Pritchard and Jara Rocha she runs The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest (TITiPI). TITiPI is an activist research formation for articulating, contesting and reimagining how computational infrastructure impacts collective life. Femke supports artistic research at MERIAN and contributes to Nubo, providing locally hosted, Open Source digital services.
