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 2072: Keith Teare on Scarlett Johansson's voice and the creative promise/peril of AI
Episode 2071: Jehuda Reinharz on Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel who aspired to be a British aristocrat
Episode 2070: John R. MacArthur warns that reading digital screens might be shrinking our brains
Episode 2069: KEEN ON America featuring Bobi Conn
Episode 2068: Jacob Kushner on the National Socialist Underground's plot to kill German immigrants
Episode 2067: Jordan Elgrably on richly complex stories about the Middle East and North Africa mostly ignored by Western media
Episode 2066: Steven Johnson on the invention of dynamite, anarchist violence and the rise of the 20th century surveillance state
Episode 2065: Craig Whitlock explains how an overweight Malaysian contractor known as Fat Leonard bribed, bilked and seduced the U.S. Navy
Episode 2064: Chris Gavaler explains how How Stars Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Marvel determine how we view reality
Episode 2063: Rabbi Shai Held on why Judaism is really all about Love
Episode 2062: KEEN ON AMERICA featuring Ali Velshi
Episode 2061: Rafil Kroll-Zaidi on Branson, Missouri, the most American town you've never heard of
Episode 2060: Ferdia Lennon on the tragicomedy of the Peloponnesian War