Amsterdam’s internet health community will gather for three days to hone local perspectives and approaches to issues like artificial intelligence

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and Mozilla's Mark Surman will be in conversation about AI

(AMSTERDAM | JUNE 12, 2023) -- This year’s MozFest House will unfold in Amsterdam from 19-21 June, mobilizing the city’s internet health community to explore issues like trustworthy AI and online privacy from a local perspective.

MozFest House is a regional adaptation of the annual Mozilla Festival, which occurred online this past March. This year’s MozFest House will be the first Mozilla Festival event to take place in person since the start of the pandemic three years ago.

MozFest House will feature sessions, workshops, discussions, and art exhibits, with the majority of content tailored to the Dutch context. Much of the event is built and facilitated in partnership with local allies like Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Waag, the University of Amsterdam, and the City of Amsterdam itself. At past MozFest House events in London, participants have built AI chatbots; created web apps to accelerate scientific research; explored how to make a more multilingual internet; and more.

Programming will include:

Featured speaker Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower who further exposed the platform's ability to incite hatred, spread misinformation, and foment political unrest. Haugen will deliver a keynote presentation and then join a conversation with Mark Surman, President of Mozilla, about the state of the internet.

Forty eight sessions, including:

  • Tech We Trust | In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to create their own algorithm, and then see it in action. Will it be fair? Or will it exhibit bias?
  • Who Pulls The Strings Of AI? | This session will detail the power dynamics behind AI systems, and how that influence plays out in the real world.
  • Fostering Transparency and Building a Cooperative Economy | This roundtable discussion will generate actionable recommendations about AI for policymakers, industry leaders, and civil society organizations.

Dialogues & Debates, MozFest’s signature speaker series. Speakers include Symeon Brown, author of “Get Rich Or Lie Trying,” and Seyi Akiwowo, a British-Nigerian women's rights activist and campaigner and the founder Glitch.

The Ethical Dilemma Cafe, a coffee shop where visitors can trade personal data for “free” drinks — a trenchant commentary on our data-fied world.

View the entire schedule, and secure a ticket, here.

Just like Mozilla Festival 2023, MozFest House’s theme is harnessing collective power to better the online world. The event will feature an eclectic mix of tech policy experts, engineers, activists, artists, and others from Amsterdam and across Europe.

Says Sarah Allen, Director of MozFest: “MozFest House is built for local individuals or organizations exploring topics like algorithmic bias, AI transparency, data stewardship, and movement building. By setting the event in Amsterdam, we will host locally-focused programs that also align with the wider global issues around the globe.”

MozFest House is built for local individuals or organizations exploring topics like algorithmic bias, AI transparency, data stewardship, and movement building.

Sarah Allen, Director of MozFest

MozFest House Amsterdam will take place in Tolhuistuin, a vibrant cultural venue with an idyllic garden that connects the iconic buildings and their studios and workshops. A second MozFest House will be held in Nairobi later this year.

Press contact: Lennart Schoemaker | [email protected]