mr. dr. ir. Lambèr Royakkers

About Lambèr Royakkers

Lambèr Royakkers is an expert in the field of ethics of technology. He has specialized in robotics and (generative) artificial intelligence (AI). In the near future, robots will be widely deployed in our society, and will change our society. Robots, partly due to developments in artificial intelligence, enable remote work and actions. Various tasks can even be entirely delegated to robots or AI systems, for example, driving through autonomous cars.

However, these systems are already leading to numerous challenging political, legal, and ethical questions. Do we want robots to take over the care from nurses? What do we think of military weapon systems that decide to kill on their own? Who is responsible if an autonomous car causes an accident? Various issues that Royakkers sheds light on in various forums, such as an expert at the roundtable discussions of the Defense and Foreign Affairs committees and within the police circle.

Lambèr Royakkers is a professor of Ethics of the Digital Society at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Additionally, he is the chair of various ethical advisory committees for European projects. He studied Mathematics, Philosophy, and Social Sciences at the Eindhoven University of Technology, and Law at the University of Tilburg. He obtained his PhD at the University of Tilburg with a dissertation on norms logic. After his studies, he specialized in ethical issues in technical design, particularly in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, and entrepreneurship. He also pays attention to issues surrounding responsibility and the problem of many hands.

It is amazing what AI can do, even though it will sometimes lead to disruption. But that is not always bad. As long as we keep thinking about how we see ourselves in an AI era and use it in a way that is friendly to people and society.

He has numerous publications in scientific journals to his name and has written more than 10 books, including Responsible Entrepreneurship (2007), Ethics, Technology, and Engineering (2011, 2023), Moral Responsibility and the Problem of Many Hands (2015), Just Ordinary Robots (2015), Urgent Upgrade. Protect public values in our digitized society (2017), and Cyberspace without conflict. The search for de-escalation of the international information (2019).

In addition to his work at the university, he co-founded the National Institute for Ethics Training (LIvET) with Angèle Pieters. LIvET is a training organization that focuses on the development and improvement of the moral competence of employees and managers, and also supports and trains ethics teachers through the so-called teach-the-teacher principle. Lambèr Royakkers is a passionate and knowledgeable speaker, who can captivate his audience with humor and clearly articulate difficult issues. He has been voted the best teacher of the year by students for several consecutive years.

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