Episode 2194: Marietje Schaake explains how to save democracy from Silicon Valley
This is the final episode of a trilogy of critical conversations about the digital revolution. Earlier this week, Gary Marcus explained how to tame Silicon Valley’s AI barons. Then Mark Weinstein talked to us the reinvention of social media. And now we have the former member of the European Parliament & current Fellow at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center, Marietje Schaake, explaining how we can save democracy from Silicon Valley. In her provocative new book, Tech Coup, Schaake explains how, under the cover of “innovation,” Silicon Valley companies have successfully resisted regulation and have even begun to seize power from governments themselves. So what to do? For Marietje Schaake, in addition to government regulation, what we need is a radical reinvention of government so that our political institutions have the agility and intelligence to take on Silicon Valley.
Marietje Schaake is a Fellow at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center and at the Institute for Human-Centered AI. She is a columnist for the Financial Times and serves on a number of not-for-profit Boards as well as the UN's High Level Advisory Body on AI. Between 2009-2019 she served as a Member of European Parliament where she worked on trade-, foreign- and tech policy. She is the author of The Tech Coup.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Episode 2087: Alex Dang and Ilya Strebulaev on How to Think Like a Venture Capitalist
Episode 2086: Keith Teare on Silicon Valley's Trump-Biden dilemma
Episode 2085: KEEN ON America featuring Nick Bryant
Episode 2084: Terry H. Anderson on why the 1990's still matter so much
Episode 2083: Andrew Lipstein on the $15 Trillion 401(k) Doomsday that might trigger a global economic catastrophe
Episode 2082: James Kirchick explains why a chill has fallen over Jews in the American publishing industry
Episode 2081: Robert Wolcott on how just-In-time technology is about to radical transform business, society and daily life
Episode 2080: Keith Teare's defense of technological utopianism
Episode 2079: Jeremy S. Adams on Lessons in Liberty from ten extraordinary Americans
Episode 2078: Spencer Kornhaber on our carnally confused age in which sex is always in our heads but not in our beds
Episode 2077: Kathleen DuVal on a Thousand Year History of Native Nations in North America
Episode 2076: Sir Tim Lankester on the promise, failure and legacy of Margaret Thatcher's monetarist revolution
Episode 2075: Bethanne Patrick's six must-read new books for May