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
Are You Drowning in Work? Nick Sonnenberg on how to reduce clutter and enable productivity
Do Women Make Better Murderers Than Men? Ren DeStefano on female serial killers and why she suspects everyone might have a murder in them
Great Kingdoms of Africa: John Parker Liberates African history from the colonial narrative of oppression, suffering and powerlessness
Hallucinations, Guardian Angels and The Third Man: Dr Ben Alderson-Day on the strange science and true stories of the unseen other
Keen On Keen: Andrew Keen on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, ChatGPT4 and the general state of tech in 2023
Appropriating the appropriators: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai on why female novelists like herself should appropriate the voices of men
As the Crisis Deepens: A rather miserable Keith Teare on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and our lack of trust in ideas and institutions
Horror Literature as a Form of Realism: Leopoldo Gout on the living dead who layer Mexico City
Grasping at the Realities of Today's Banking Crisis: Brad DeLong on the new economic laws of our social media age
The Case for Cultural Appropriation: Martin Puchner on how culture is simultaneously owned by nobody and by all of us
Beijing 1949: Elisabeth B. Armstrong on the most consequential anti-colonial feminist conference that you've never heard of
How to Walk the Walk: Neil Gross on three police chiefs who defied the odds and changed American cop culture
Has World War One Ended Yet? Alice Winn on innocence, privilege, violence, sexuality and love in 1914-18 England