Hans de Zwart
Hans de Zwart is a researcher and lecturer at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. As a philosopher, he focuses on the ethics and philosophy of technology. He is currently working on a political-philosophical PhD research at Radboud University, examining profiling through machine learning. He is a member of the Ethical Research Committee at the University of Applied Sciences.
He is one of the founders and a board member of the Racism and Technology Center, also serving on the board of the Center for the Advancement of Infrastructural Imagination (CAII), and is the secretary of Circusbende.
Previously, Hans was the director of the digital civil rights organization Bits of Freedom, advocating for communication freedom and privacy on the internet. Before that, he was a Senior Innovation Adviser for Global HR and Learning Technologies at Shell, a Moodle consultant at Stoas Learning, and began his career as a physical education teacher at a secondary school in Amsterdam Southeast.
His work lies at the intersection of technology (which he prefers to be “open”) and societal developments, often viewed from the perspective of citizens’ rights. He knows that technology is always also political, is not a fan of intellectual property, and believes in the power of design.
His articles have been published in outlets such as de Volkskrant (on AI in education and on ethnic profiling using Facebook ads, NRC (on Google’s use of Wikipedia, how Google determines how we navigate the city, and on terror policies and fear), and De Correspondent (on privacy in relation to World War II). On Medium, he once wrote the most-read article of the day about Ai Weiwei and surveillance.
Hans is frequently interviewed regarding his research and activism: in NRC and De Correspondent about privacy, in De Groene Amsterdammer about AI funding, in de Volkskrant about a Black student not being recognized by her university’s exam software, and on BNR about AI use in recruitment (based on his research on this topic). Check out his free newsletter with curated articles on AI.
Occasionally, he creates his own websites: a search engine for The Big Lebowski quotes, an overview of the books he reads, an app for reading articles later, and a challenge to read Booker Prize winners.
He speaks about the societal implications of technology, the role of moral imagination in safeguarding public values in the use of AI, AI in recruitment, and human rights (like privacy) in the digital domain.
Hans de Zwart: Why technology is never neutral (1/3), IT Talent College:
Hans de Zwart – The Future is False Positive, Black Hat Sessions: