Welcome to our homepage. Our goal is to empower people to understand the influence of mathematics and technology on their lives better. In particular, we want to help mathematicians in developing tools in a way that minimises the risk of harm while enabling positive impact. We offer a lecture course on these topics in Michaelmas and an advanced discussion course in Lent. We also occasionally have invited speaker events and socials where we provide open room for discussion.
Technology's influence on the world we live in hardly needs explaining. We are now more than ever aware of how big data models, cyber security, automated weapons, and of course so-called artificial intelligence affect society. It is obvious that these technologies present ethical issues: What is the best way to use them? How can they be made accessible? Which adverse effects might they have, and how can this be mitigated? Should they be regulated in certain domains of life, and by whom?
We believe all of these questions are of huge importance. In addition, we think there's something missing from them: the people who create these technologies, the developers. Because the technologies that are so impactful today are mathematical in nature, they are developed by mathematicians (in the broad sense). In most cases, these people were mathematics or CS undergrads in Cambridge (or perhaps Princeton) just a couple of years ago, and now they are changing the world. If you are in Cambridge now, you may be one of them soon. We think the opportunities for mathematicians to learn about and reflect on mathematics' influence on the world are often very limited. This is why we provide a forum for both. With our seminars we hope to give mathematicians tools and insight to do maths better.
For us, there is not only the ethics of technology. Technology is not just a thing that comes into the world from nothing and then has to be dealt with. Technology is created by people. It is a process that transforms society. Therefore we are focussed on the ethics in technology, in mathematics, in computer science, that is, the questions that people who develop new technologies need to confront as it is happening. We do not give sermons about justice, nor do we specialise in moral philosophy. Our aim is to identify factors that make a mathematical technology more or less successful, and to adapt our work accordingly.
Most of our talks take place in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
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Termcard — Michaelmas 2026