Designing AI for Autonomy as a Political Project

Based on a talk delivered at the AI & Algorithm Seminar hosted by the Dutch Data Protection Authority on 25 March 2026 at ECC Leiden. I am a postdoctoral researcher in Knowledge & Intelligence Design at TU Delft. I study how AI systems can be designed to be open and responsive to dispute, especially when they are used in public settings like cities. I call this program “contestable AI” (Alfrink et al., 2022). I have a background in interaction design, and my work sits at the intersection of design research, human-computer interaction, and philosophy of technology. The question driving my work: how can we use design to ensure people’s autonomy in an age of increasingly pervasive AI? Human autonomy in the age of AI Autonomy means having the effective capacity to govern your own life. It rests on two conditions: authenticity and agency (Prunkl, 2022). Authenticity means holding beliefs that are free from manipulative influences. Agency means being able to act on those beliefs with…