Biography

I studied computer science and philosophy in Leiden and completed my PhD on the philosophy of mathematics at Stockholm University when I was 20. I continued my research on the intersection of philosophy of mathematics and cognitive science at Stockholm University and the Institute for Futures Studies, on a research grant from Vetenskapsrådet. Aside from research, I engage in popular science writing, with now three books to my name. The most recent is on AI and its links to philosophy, under the Dutch title 'Alsmaar Intelligenter'. From there, my research focus has switched to philosophy of AI on which I work at TU Delft.

Expertise

I am co-founder of the Delft Digital Ethics Centre, which focusses on the translation of ethical values into design requirements that can be used by engineers, decision and policy makers and regulators. There I work on the broad range of ethical challenges in projects with external stakeholders.

My own research focusses mostly on the explainability of AI algorithms. How can we make these algorithms more transparent? What information do we need to use them responsibly in their many applications? I use philosophical accounts from epistemology and philosophy of science to formulate design requirements on AI tools on these knowledge-related aspects. In collaboration with computer scientists I also aim to develop new tools to improve the explainability of algorithms.

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