RightsCon 2026, one of the biggest in-person convenings for digital rights, was de facto cancelled after Zambia’s government postponed it via public announcement, without prior communication with Access Now, the organizer of the event. With staff and some participants already on the ground in Lusaka, and others about to board their planes, this last-minute decision created chaos.  

(Dutch below)
From September on INC will be an autonomous entity, leaving the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences behind. This phase will present us with both challenges and exciting new opportunities. As INC will become an association with members, we are currently looking for 3 board members. The board will meet about 4 times a year to develop and monitor the association’s strategy. 
Alongside the general board members, we are specifically looking for a:

Foto: aau/MüllerBrokenArm, a student team led by Nadezhda Varzonova, will compete in the Robotic Grasping and Manipulation Competition at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) from 2 to 4 June 2026. The Klagenfurt team enters the competition as one of the favourites after achieving the highest overall score in the qualification round.

Max, a young and ambitious researcher, travels to Svalbard, Norway, to speak at a conference on the ethics of mind enhancement. There, she discovers a high-tech experimental building powered by “Dual Resolve,” a system that harvests human body heat. As the conference unfolds, the warmth of bodies and the pressure of ideas begin to blur, pulling Max into a state of growing uncertainty where thought and sensation are no longer discernible.

Studierende lassen Experi­ment mit Höhen­forschungs­ballon steigen - Preis für Informatikerin Borrmann - JMU für Gleich­stellung ausgezeichnet - Programm für ausländische Gäste - Liturgie der Zukunft

“Artificial Intelligence” in Switzerland 2024: Rapid Diffusion and Increasing Digital Inequality

New publications on techno-religion, human augmentation technologies, internet use in Switzerland

Vortragsreihe: Wie Digitalisierung und Künstliche Intelligenz unsere Gesellschaft verändern

Daniela Jaramillo-Dent wins Best Seminar Award for outstanding teaching

Generative AI is Taking Over Everyday Life in Switzerland: From Experimentation to Regular Use

Michael Reiss successfully defended his cumulative dissertation  

Two Awards at SACM 2025 for the Media Change and Innovation Division

Internet Use as Everyday Religion on the Rise, Cyborgization Still in its Early Stages

Kiran Kappeler successfully defended her dissertation

In one of our very first AI Learning Labs projects, we are teaming up to explore how to design a chatbot that draws on reliable science and systemic social analysis
The post How can we build a responsible climate chatbot? first appeared on Open Knowledge Blog.

By Xiaoquan (Chelsea) Zhong

This Can’t be the Place: Alternative Theories of the Internet is the latest INC reader featuring a selection of INC Longform’s from the past five years. You can read it online, download it as a PDF, or order it for free at home.

How can we recognize, describe, and make use of symmetries—from nature to abstract mathematics?

Giant pandas are protected as global ‘natural heritage’ and as China’s ‘national treasure.’ Christof Lammer shows how, behind the spotlight on panda diplomacy, cultural ideas about kinship – and the genealogical, genetic, and behavioural measurements built on them – redirect species conservation.