Leapfrog
Kars Alfrink at TU Delft in 2023.
Leapfrog.nl is Kars Alfrink’s longtime home on the web.
Dr. Kars Alfrink is a postdoctoral researcher at TU Delft, focusing on contestable AI. His research investigates how to design public artificial intelligence systems so that they remain subject to societal control. Before entering academia, Kars spent more than 15 years as an interaction design consultant, entrepreneur, and community organizer, experiences that now shape his research. He combines extensive practical expertise in digital product design with critical sociopolitical theory to create more democratic public AI systems.
His current work, "People's Compute," goes beyond AI application contestability to examine how AI infrastructure shapes collective autonomy. By studying data centers and other computing resources, Kars explores three critical maneuvers necessary for technological self-determination: shifting from applications to infrastructures, designing for collectives rather than individuals, and adopting realist rather than idealist approaches. This research positions designers as embedded accomplices who build community capacity for democratic governance of AI systems, offering an alternative path between neoliberal technocracy and populist anti-politics in an era of increasing technological sovereigntism.
Before his academic career, Kars cofounded and codirected Hubbub, a boutique design agency specializing in playful design. His commitment to social justice in technology led him to cofound Tech Solidarity NL, a grassroots community of Dutch tech workers advocating for more just and equitable technology. He also initiated the Dutch edition of This Happened, a series of events focused on the stories behind interaction design.
Kars holds a PhD from TU Delft (2024) and an MA in interaction design from the Utrecht School of the Arts (2002). He is based in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
This domain is also home to Leapfroglog, Kars’s irregularly updated old-school weblog.
Kars can be found online at the usual places, including Bluesky, Mastodon, and LinkedIn. Send email to ‘kars’ care of this domain.
Last updated: April 2025.