21.05.2026 IfI Colloquium: Drones and the Foundations of Political Authority
Speaker:
Prof. Dr. Francis Cheneval
Department of Philosophy, University of Zurich
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schwabe
Department of Informatics, University of Zurich
Prof. Dr. Mateusz Dolata
Endowed Chair of Artificial Intelligence, Zeppelin University, Germany
Date: Thursday, 21 May 2026, 17:15
Location: room BIN 2.A.01 at the Department of Informatics (IfI), Binzmühlestrasse 14, 8050 Zürich
Details about the format of the talk shall be checked always just ahead of a certain presentation date: (information here)
Abstract
This talk presents the results of our multi-year research project combining philosophy and computer science. We examined how the use of automated or semi-automated drones by public executives, such as police forces and fire brigades, reshapes the understanding and exercise of public executives in democratic governance. While drawing on state-of-the-art philosophical theories of authority and related concepts, the comparative case studies of police and fire brigade drone programs analysed how executive actors justify drone use, how organisational frameworks structure their deployment, and how affected publics perceive these practices. The findings show that drones have the potential to increase the legitimacy of public authority by improving the epistemic quality as well as the efficiency in surveillance, search and rescue, and emergency response. At the same time, automated drones de-personalise the execution of authoritative behaviour and thereby raise fundamental questions about the connection of this behaviour to the sources of legitimate authority.
Bio
Francis Cheneval, Gerhard Schwabe and Mateusz Dolata jointly lead an SNF project on the topic of the talk. Francis Cheneval has been a full professor of political philosophy at UZH since 2011. His research focusses on Theory of Democracy, Property Rights, Normative Problems of European and Multilateral Integration, Justice and History of Political Thought. Gerhard Schwabe has been a full professor of Information Management at UZH since 2002. He is currently engaged in research on Generative AI applications, Human AI collaboration, human drone collaboration, and government as a platform. Mateusz Dolata has been a senior researcher at UZH until 2024 and since then a full professor of AI at Zeppelin University since then. In his research he explores the interaction between humans and AI in various areas of life and enable the best possible design of this interaction.