Olya Kudina

Tech Ethics | AI DeMoS Lab

Journal of Human-Technology Relations

About

Olya Kudina is an ethicist of technology focusing on the dynamic interaction between values and technologies. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands), where she helps to accompany technology development with ethical reflection and cultural sensitivity as essential counterparts.

Olya is a co-director of the AI DeMoS Lab that focuses on the relation between AI and democracy, and responsible AI development practices. She is also a co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the diamond open access Journal of Human-Technology Relations.

Her previous work outside academia includes diplomacy, (inter)governmental work, data protection and privacy. Together with her current expertise in empirical philosophy, Olya connects ethics, design and governance in providing strategic foresight and developing technologies that are adaptable to the changing world.

Olya holds a PhD degree in Philosophy of Technology from the University of Twente and speaks English, Spanish, Dutch and Ukrainian fluently, with limited working proficiency in several other languages.

In 2024, Olya was also appointed as an Extraordinary Professor in Philosophy of AI at Optentia Research Unit of the North-West University in South Africa; and became an elected member of The Young Academy of the Dutch Royal Science Academy (2024-2029)

Research

Olya is an interdisciplinary researcher in philosophy/ethics of technology who explores the relation between human values and technologies. Her recent focus has been on AI and democracy in the framework of the AI DeMoS Lab that she founded and co-leads. To anticipate the ethical challenges and opportunities of technologies, Olya thinks it is essential to combine different academic practices and fields.

To this end, her philosophic work is inspired by (post)phenomenology, Dewey’s pragmatism, and bioethics and integrates qualitative empirical methods from STS and psychology.

Olya’s recent research explores the responsible use and design of Natural Language Processing and Automatic Speech Recognition algorithms, with applications in voice assistants such as Alexa and conversational agents such as ChatGPT.

Teaching

Olya teaches in a range of university courses across bachelor, master and PhD levels. She pursues creative teaching, inviting the students to integrate different theoretical and stakeholders perspectives in analyzing contemporary case studies and engaging them in responsible design practices. Below are the courses Olya created and teaches in:

Robots and society

Introduction to AI and Responsible AI Engineering

Ethics of technology and bioethics

Empirical Methods in Philosophy of Technology

Ethics of Technology in Design (Ukrainian)

News and upcoming events

Olya will be on extended leave from work, resuming her duties in September 2025. Meanwhile, check out her latest developments below.

In December 2024, Olya was promoted to Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology.

‍Article alerts! Check out Olya's reflection on her recent trip home to Ukraine from a lens of human-technology relations, titled "Daily life in times of war: a technological mediation perspective" and her 2024 editorial with Peter-Paul Verbeek to wrap up another successful issue of the Journal of Human-Technology Relations - "Fitting the particular and the general: human-technology relations in the context of technological systems and global events".

Additionally, have a look at a new collaborative paper, of which Olya was a part, that discusses the "Challenges and future directions for integration of Large Language Models into socio-technical systems."

On December 16, 2024, Olya presented at a methodology colloquium together with Nynke van Uffelen on “A scoping literature review as a method for philosophical analysis: The case of the environmental impact of AI and latent normativity.” This presentation outlined their upcoming paper with Lode Lauwaert and Wim Landuyt.

On December 2, 2024, Olya gave a public talk at Rotterdam City Hall for the Batavian Society for Experimental Philosophy, one of the oldest philosophy societies in the Netherlands. She talked about "Deepfakes and Democracy: Is there a Place for Trust in the Age of Deception?"

Contact

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o.kudina@tudelft.nl