How did you come up with the idea to become a REC Impact Fellow at UvA?

In my former role as Publisher for global AI and Computer Science at Elsevier, I combined business development in science with editorial leadership and management. Over two decades of working with the international AI and CS research communities, I built a broad global network and developed deep insight into the field, observing first-hand how international computing research evolves into new tech business. 

Because of computing’s unique, conference-driven publication culture, this research area can be opaque to outsiders. After the deep-learning breakthroughs of 2012, I was increasingly asked by policymakers to clarify research trends and help separate AI science from AI science fiction. By 2017, I had also collaborated with Mark Siebert to better quantify global trends in AI research, and we’ve continued discussing how new knowledge disseminates from academia to society ever since.

I’ve always been fascinated by interdisciplinary communication—understanding who people are talking to, what people read, and how new knowledge circulates within, and between, expert communities. I enjoy demystifying AI and helping non-computing audiences navigate this fascinating field, especially as the many different schools of thought across AI have very different strengths and weaknesses (and biases). Framing all of AI as ever novel combinations of machine learning models, data and compute is an oversimplification. AI isn’t new, and it isn’t one thing.  

My conversations with policymakers about the societal impact of advanced computing naturally expanded my work beyond publishing into broader strategic consulting. Digitization isn’t only about technology—it forces our legal, business, and policy frameworks to constantly catch up.

Recently, I shifted toward digital autonomy, so when Mark Siebert suggested collaborating with the REC Impact community, I jumped at the opportunity. It felt like a great way to help build bridges across Amsterdam, and beyond. Knowledge transfer is, ultimately, people transfer.

What was your first experience on campus?

My first experience on this campus was actually quite recent. My work usually oscillates between AI research environments and policy circles, and until then my activities on Roeterseiland were mostly limited to catching a movie at Kriterion. Turning the corner from Roeterstraat and walking toward the REC building, I found myself thinking, “Gosh, I thought I knew Amsterdam and the UvA really well, but I never realized how large and vibrant this campus truly is.” A classic Amsterdam surprise, hidden right in the heart of the city! Pleased to see not every innovation campus has been pushed to the outskirts of a beautiful historical city just yet. To me, this shows the city is not following the example of Venice—Amsterdam manages to be both an open air museum and a vibrant, hustling and bustling, living, learning, innovating and growing city. 

What do you hope the Fellowship will bring you?

I want to bring people together around themes like digital sovereignty, resilience, creativity, and outreach.

Europe educates top AI talent, hosts world leading research groups, and has serious deep-tech potential. Yet many computing businesses we use still emerge, or scale-up, within the U.S. tech ecosystem. As I focus more on digital autonomy, I’d like to move this conversation beyond raising awareness (questions like, “How comfortable are we with someone having an off-switch for our city?”)  to explore practical issues like —how can cities like Amsterdam use their collective buying power to create agency within Europe’s tech ecosystem; how can we collectively build, deploy, and regulate technology aligned with our values; and how can we help policymakers shift from reactive to proactive digital leadership? 

Ultimately, I hope to convene diverse partners—not just academics—to ensure that new computing technologies contribute to broad societal welfare rather than concentrating more wealth and power within a few organizations.

Amsterdam is an ideal starting point—an international AI hub that’s big enough to matter and small enough that people still know one another. With all the commercial, social and creative talent in the region, I hope to spark collaborations that help organizations make thoughtful, value-aligned choices about digital technologies we collectively research, develop, procure and deploy. Many metropolitan organization’s already have  policies and sustainable options for the physical goods and services they procure. Digital services (like AI or cloud computing) should not be fundamentally different.  

These challenges originate in computer science but are fundamentally governance, business, educational, and social questions. Designing practical approaches requires all these perspectives. That’s why REC appeals to me: it brings together social sciences, business, and law.  I very much look forward to working with the REC impact community.