‘Transforming capitalism in the Age of AI’ Flickr album

Photo album of the ‘Transforming capitalism in the Age of AI‘ event in Brussels.

EU policymakers have proposed an alphabet soup of digital laws – DMA, DSA, DGA, AIA, you name it – to get more transparency and accountability from each firm and the digital infrastructures they control. Also, to counter the excesses like monopolistic power over digital market spaces and the polarising effects of social media on democratic processes.      

But this agenda – vital though it is – is too defensive. While the EU aims to get a minimum of transparency, cash-strapped public authorities continue to outsource their responsibilities to tech firms, hoping their technological fixes can solve problems like poverty, bad health, and failing education. But while those problems are as accurate as ever, there is one immediate outcome: our public institutions and how we work and live are reshaped to serve Big Tech’s profits and power.