News


We need peace rooms, not war rooms

A proposal for the pro-social use of big data intelligence
Digital technology has reached a supremacy and momentum hardly comparable with previous inventions. Even earlier game changers in the history of man such as the industrialization appear less impactful compared to the digital revolution.


Sustainable development: Turn war rooms into peace rooms

The resurgence of terms such as 'cold war' and 'clash of cultures' in the media reflects a dangerous social dynamic that could drive societies to the brink of recession, civil war and societal collapse. We suggest that a more modern, open and scientific strategy might help to prevent history from repeating itself.


Boost sustainability through social justice in China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Guo Huadong outlines proposals to share big data on Earth observations across Asia, the Middle East and East Africa to ensure that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will contribute to sustainability (Nature 554, 25–27; 2018). Sustainability also includes issues of social justice and so, on the basis of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the BRI should include respect for human rights as well, so that everyone benefits.


iGod

Our age of rapid digitalization may well develop into a nightmare that puts Orwell's 1984 in the shadow. Willemijn Dicke translated Dirk Helbing's darkest visions into a science fiction novel called 'iGod.' Delta visited her for a book talk.

A lecture about the novel IGod by Willemijn Dicke and Dirk Helbing in the Prinsenkwartier.

Willemijn Dicke and Dirk Helbing provided feedback on film projects of students participating in the TU Delft Honours Programme. The video's were inspired by the novel IGod.


Als iGod in 2025 de baas is

In NRC Handelsblad a pre-publication of Willemijn Dicke's novel iGod was published, with an introduction by Dirk Helbing.



Engineering a More Responsible Digital Future

Economic revolutions often bring profound social change, affecting everything from jobs to family size. With the digital revolution now in full swing, humanity must recommit to building more ethical machines, or face a future in which our technologies undermine basic values like human rights and civil liberties.


How can we engineer a more responsible digital future

The world is being battered by technological disruption, as innovations such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things, blockchain, 3D printing, and virtual reality change how societies and economies work. Individually, each of these technologies has the potential to transform established products, services, and associated support networks. Taken together, they will upend old business models and institutions, heralding a new era of economic, social, and political history. How will we respond?


How to stop surveillance capitalism

We are living in a society that thrives on the combination of two very successful systems: capitalism and democracy.
Unfortunately, this model is not good enough anymore. A key reason is that, after some decades of wishful thinking, it is now clear that democracy and capitalism do not have aligned goals.


Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?

We are in the middle of a technological upheaval that will transform the way society is organized. We must make the right decisions now.


Digital revolution

Dirk Helbing was interviewed for duurzaambedrijfsleven.nl.


Artificial intelligence

Dirk Helbing was interviewed in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad about Artificial intelligence.


'We are building a dictatorship of data'

Dirk Helbing was interviewed in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad about big data.


Internet of Things

In the Dutch TV programme 'RTLZ Toekomstmakers' about the Internet of Things, Dirk Helbing was interviewed.


Responsible innovation

Dirk Helbing gave a speech during a special EU presidency 2016 edition of NWO’s annual conference on Responsible Innovation.


A responsible digital future: big data and ethical concerns


A smart society is resilient

Make society more resilient by creating modular systems, says Dirk Helbing in TU Delta.


Digital democracy or data doctrine?

Big data, nudging, manipulation of behaviour: will artificial intelligence and algorithms automate our society? Together with other scientists, Jeroen van den Hoven and Dirk Helbing published a ‘DigitalManifest’ at Spektrum.de, an appeal for Digital freedom and democracy.


Build digital democracy

Open sharing of data that are collected with smart devices would empower citizens and create jobs, say Dirk Helbing and Evangelos Pournaras in Nature.