Dr. Francesco Preta

About

Francesco Preta is a guest researcher in the research group "Technology, Power and Domination" at the Weizenbaum Institute. His work focuses on the divergence of pure and applied mathematics as epistemic practices and how it affects the concentration of power in the current AI framework. During his time at Weizenbaum, he aims to study how this duality is reflected in current EU policies.

Francesco's research interests include the history and philosophy of mathematics, critical AI theory, historical epistemology, and the political economy of mathematical knowledge production. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from New York University (2021) and has collaborated with academic and private institutions on a freelance basis since 2022.

His current research project, "Vector Spaces, Unbound" (joint with Mikael Brunila, Sciences Po), analyzes the evolution of the concept of vector space, from its inception to the current usage in embedding models. It combines close reading of mathematical texts with methods in computational social science to interpret the technical and social shift this evolution implies.

Research roup: Technology, Power and Domination (July 2026)