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We are pleased to invite you to our interdisciplinary international conference on ‘Public Governance and Emerging Technologies: Values, Trust, and Compliance by Design’ on 11-12 January 2024, in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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Are you passionate about philosophy, technology, and writing? The 4TU.Ethics Independent Blog is on the lookout for new members to join our editorial team. We extend this invitation to all 4TU.Ethics Center members, including senior researchers, PhD candidates, and postdocs.

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In 2021, the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) launched a programme on human-centred AI for an inclusive society. Research in this programme focuses on the development and application of trustworthy, human-centred AI. To conduct this research, the NWA supports various ELSA (Ethical, Legal, Societal Aspects) Labs.

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Statement 4TU.Ethics against use of technology for violence

The 4TU Centre for Ethics and Technology is distraught by the brutal violence against innocent people in Iran, Ukraine, and many other places in the world. In our mission we state that we envision  “..a world in which technology is developed and used for benefit of humanity and the preservation of our planet. It is a world in which ethical considerations concerning human rights, well-being, global and inter-generational justice, the social good are systematically included in practices of technology and engineering.”

This is an ideal vision indeed. Throughout human history, technology has been applied to suppress and to attack innocent people, either in warfare or by violent regimes towards their own people. Notwithstanding this repeating history, we are always shocked again, for example now in the ways how the Iranian regime is suppressing Iranian citizens by means of digital technologies (including tracking protesters with spyware on their mobile phones and using facial recognition technologies to identify protesters) and in the drone attacks by the Russian army on Ukrainian technological infrastructures, necessary for all citizens to survive. We cannot but reject such violence. Human rights should be served by technological developments, not violated. We call on all governments and engineers to resist such use of technology.