TU Delft has withdrawn from a research collaboration on artificial intelligence. ‘Delft Student Intifada’ is protesting on 3 December partly against this partnership, because the Israeli company Weebit Nano was involved. Three other collaborations will not go ahead.
(Photo: Thijs van Reeuwijk)
Delft Student Intifada is protesting on 3 December partly because TU Delft had started two collaborations with Israeli companies, even after stricter policy came into effect. ‘E2PackMan’ began on 14 July, and ‘Next Generation of edge AI crossing technology fields’ on 4 August. The ‘no, unless’ policy for new partnerships was introduced in June.
A TU Delft spokesperson told Delta today that TU Delft has withdrawn from Next, with the knowledge and consent of all partners involved. This project focuses on secure European artificial intelligence that runs directly on local devices rather than in the cloud. The Israeli partner is the company Weebit Nano.
Incidentally, the so-called declaration of honour for both collaborations had already been signed before TU Delft introduced its stricter policy — in May for Next and in February for E2PackMan.
Moral delibaration chamber to examine other partnership
Continuing with the latter collaboration is also uncertain. A moral delibaration chamber is expected to address this issue. TU still needs to set up this panel, but has previously used this model to resolve ethical questions. The aforementioned ‘no, unless’ policy also stems from this approach.
The spokesperson also reported that three other planned collaborations involving Israeli partners will not go ahead. He still had to inform the activists of all this this afternoon. At 4:30 p.m., they were still on the ME roof. They have been ordered to leave, as TU Delft wanted them off before dark for safety reasons.
More to follow.
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