Newsroom
Latest news from the alignAI doctoral network:

Ctrl-Alt-Deterrence: Rethinking Stability in the Age of Cyber, AI and Autonomy
On 13 February 2026, the IEAI co-hosted with Amerikahaus an official side event of the Munich Security Conference 2026 titled “Ctrl-Alt-Deterrence: Rethinking Stability in the Age of Cyber, AI and Autonomy”. The panel brought together leaders from defense, academia, policy and industry to explore how artificial intelligence and autonomous systems are reshaping deterrence theory and practice.

Renewing Craftsmanship in the Age of AI: Toward a Design Pedagogy of Care
Craftsmanship has long held a central place in art and design history. While often associated with form and aesthetics, its deeper emphasis lies in dedication, tradition and quality-in the care and attention given to the process of making. As technology accelerates and productivity becomes a dominant cultural value, design movements have emerged to resist this pace. Slow technology, for instance, encourages mindful engagement with products (Hallnäs & Redström, 2002), while speculative design and design fiction invite audiences to imagine alternative futures (Dunne & Raby, 2013; Bleecker, 2009). Yet both still centre primarily on the perception of the audience and on how the work is received or interpreted. Craftsmanship, by contrast, turns inward: it concerns the mode of practice, the values and sensibilities embodied by the maker in the act of creation. It asks not what is made, but how it is made, and how that process shapes the maker themselves. In the context of design education, this focus on practice makes craftsmanship particularly resonant: it cultivates an attitude, a rhythm and a sense of responsibility toward making that extends beyond outcomes.

Q&A with PI Jesse Benjamin
In this video interview, we speak with Professor Jesse Benjamin, Assistant Professor in Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology. He shares how his work in design research and human-centred AI contributes to the alignAI network, reflects on supervising PhD researchers across design and machine learning and discusses his hopes for shaping AI systems that better reflect societal values and public concerns.

Q&A with PI Stephan Wensveen
In this video interview, we speak with Professor Stephan Wensveen, Professor of Transformative Design at Eindhoven University of Technology. He discusses his approach to guiding and supervising PhD candidates, how his work connects design research with emerging technologies and what message he believes should be shared with those outside academia who are concerned about the future of AI.

Navigating Truth and Accountability in the Age of AI Information
Journalism, as one of the main driving forces behind information flows in modern societies, has traditionally promoted itself as the medium of truth. The credibility of news institutions and the legitimacy of journalism as a profession have long rested on their ability to produce, verify and disseminate information grounded in factual accuracy and editorial integrity. Yet, in the era of artificial intelligence, these epistemic foundations are being profoundly challenged: generative AI does not only replicate or automate journalistic processes, but also potentially transforms them. The generative potential of AI introduces a new layer of uncertainty to news production, as tools that are neither human nor conscious are now producing texts with the marks of human authorship, originality and even moral voice.

Tying the Knots of Trust: Understanding the Evolving Sociotechnical Ecosystem of Trust in LLMs
When we interact with a chatbot, ask a digital assistant for advice or rely on LLMs to summarise a long document, we are doing something profoundly human: we are trusting. Trust is part of what makes cooperation possible between people, but increasingly, also between people and machines. In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), and particularly with the rapid rise of large language models (LLMs), trust has become a central issue.