The Yin and Yang of the Digital Century with Sebastian Hallensleben and Tony Curzon Price - Next 100 series

07/31/24 • 23 min

In this episode, we discuss navigating the dualities of the digital economy amidst rising entropy and the unexpected effects of regulations. Staying a tech optimist can feel challenging. The past decade of rapid digitalization has improved interactions between citizens and governments, amplified marginalized voices, and increased social and economic interconnectedness. However, these benefits aren't equally distributed. Issues like data commodification, privacy concerns, and societal pathologies from constant smartphone use have permeated societies, possibly irreversibly. The increase in societal entropy leads to disorder and uncertainty, impacting different groups unevenly. As a result, policies and regulations often struggle to succeed and may have unintended consequences, potentially fueling the erosion of democratic societies.

Guests:
Sebastian Hallensleben
Head of Digitalisation and AI; Head of Strategic Technology Area "Digital Trust", VDE | Co-Chair, OECD ONE AI; UNESCO AI Ethics implementation expert group

Dr. Sebastian Hallensleben, Chair of CEN-CENELEC JTC 21 shaping European AI standards for EU regulation, also contributes to the EU StandICT program and leads the Trusted Information working group. He co-chairs OECD ONE.AI's classification and risk assessment group and holds roles in AI committees at IEC, Council of Europe, and UNESCO. Additionally, he heads Digitalisation and AI at VDE, overseeing new product/service development and providing guidance to the German parliament, federal ministries, and the European Commission. His focus includes AI ethics, generative AI impact, privacy-preserving trust infrastructures, and AI quality characterization. Previously, he facilitated dialogues between academia, industry, and policymaking and worked on international infrastructure projects. With a PhD in physics, he began his career in IT development and solutions architecture in the financial and telecom sectors. He holds an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Tübingen and both his MSc and PhD degrees in physics are from the Unviersity of Sussexs.

Tony Curzon Price
Economic regulation, strategy, energy, net zero, antitrust, tech regulation, former sr advisor to UK PM

Tony Curzon Price Sits on the board of Ofgem, the UK's energy regulator with responsibility for achieving Net Zero. He has worked in Number 10, the Cabinet Office, the department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and in the UK's antitrust authority. Before his civil service career, he founded Arithmatica, a silicon valley chip design company, and spent 5 years building the company in the Bay Area; he was editor-in-chief of the UK political website openDemocracy, where transformed openDemocracy into a not-for-profit editors’ cooperative for comment, analysis and investigation. He wrote his PhD on game theory and market design with Ken Binmore at UCL.

Supported by: International Visegrad Fund

International Visegrad Fund
Established by the governments of the Visegrad Group countries to promote regional cooperation.
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Guests:
Sebastian Hallensleben
Head of Digitalisation and AI; Head of Strategic Technology Area "Digital Trust", VDE | Co-Chair, OECD ONE AI; UNESCO AI Ethics implementation expert group

Tony Curzon Price
Economic regulation, strategy, energy, net zero, antitrust, tech regulation, former sr advisor to UK PM

Supported by: International Visegrad Fund

Previous Episode

Nuclear Fusion with Mileda Roveda, CTO of Gauss Fusion - Next 100 series

Fusion energy, at the cutting edge of scientific advancement, offers a promising yet challenging path to sustainable power. Recent breakthroughs in magnetic confinement and laser-driven inertial fusion have moved us closer to net energy gain. However, significant obstacles remain in scaling stable fusion reactions for commercial use, requiring substantial investments and stringent safety regulations. Despite these hurdles, the potential for fusion energy to provide a nearly inexhaustible, low-carbon source of power continues to drive global research. Looking ahead, the focus will be on improving reactor efficiency and addressing material science challenges, maintaining a realistic yet optimistic outlook on fusion's role in future energy solutions.
Gauss Fusion is a Greentech venture founded in 2022 by private industrial companies. The company brings together a combination of cutting-edge scientific research and industrial expertise on fusion energy that is unique in Europe. The founding companies from Germany, France, Italy and Spain have extensive expertise in fusion technology. In addition, Gauss Fusion cooperates with leading European research institutes. These include, among others: CERN, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and ENEA in Italy. With this impressive knowledge base from industry and academia, and through strategic public-private partnerships, Gauss Fusion is pursuing the goal of bringing renewable fusion energy to market at high-speed using efficient structures, and represents an entrepreneurial approach that aims to significantly accelerate development through public-private partnerships (PPP).
https://gauss-fusion.com
Milena Roveda, Chief Executive Officer, Gauss Fusion, Innovator
Her previous roles include the Chief Financial Officer of DEPT (2021-2022) and IFS (2018-2019) and Chief Operating Officer of MotorK(2019-2020). Roveda has over 25 years of international experience leading teams in developing and expanding businesses and extensive know-how in designing and executing corporate strategies.
The Next 100 Symposium, a Global Arena Research Institute conference, brings together leaders and experts across various disciplines. True to the original ethos of the Next 100, we reject the notion of deepening disorder, mistrust, and polarization as the "new normal." The 2024 Berlin edition aims to identify realistic, actionable paths forward, particularly in the context of the upcoming European parliamentary elections and the upcoming European Commission.

Next Episode

Society & Politics: Should Disorder Be the New Normal? - Next 100 series

In this podcast, we explore whether it's possible to augment stability and safeguard freedom in liberal democracies amidst rapid socio-political changes and growing extremism across the ideological spectrum. We assess the shifting dynamics within developed democracies of the Euro-Atlantic space, where increasing activism at both ends of the political spectrum complicates the search for a moderate political middle. The discussion delves into the complexities and unprecedented pace of social and political changes, examining their implications for governance amidst significant policy challenges, such as digital and environmental transformations, cultural debates, and migration issues. Additionally, we consider the effects of polarization, opportunism, and populism on effective governance, exploring whether this seeming disorder can be managed or even reversed, and what strategies might stabilize these trends in the short and long term.

Guests:
Hans Pung, President of RAND Europe

Hans Pung is President of RAND Europe, a not-for-profit public policy research organization that helps improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis. Pung joined RAND as a policy analyst in 2002 and continues to lead and deliver research projects, particularly around industrial economics and security policy issues. Before joining RAND, Pung served as an engineer officer in the United States Army with responsibility for logistics, personnel, and operations and overseas service in the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Germany. His recent projects include Cost Modeling and Skills Analysis, European Defense Industrial Base Analysis, Future UK Military Capability Requirements, Improving Counter-Violent Extremism Intervention.
Nestor Maslej, AI Index Research Manager, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI

Nestor Maslej is a Research Associate at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). In this position, he uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to conduct research for the AI Index and Global AI Vibrancy Tool. Nestor also leads research projects that study AI in the context of technical advancement, ethical concerns and policymaking. In developing tools that track the advancement of AI, Nestor hopes to make the AI space more accessible to both policymakers and citizens. His work is also oriented towards building knowledge about AI in a way that facilitates more productive dialogues surrounding its future and can lead to its development in ethically responsible ways. Prior to joining HAI, Nestor worked in Toronto as an analyst in several startups.
Elizabeth Nelson, Co-Founder, Head of Innovation & Content Smart Building Collective

The author of The Healthy Office Revolution, Elizabeth C. Nelson is a researcher, writer, and Co-Founder of the Smart Building Collective | Certification. She stands on the review board for Academic publications including Nature's Digital Medicine, Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), and Plos One. Her PhD in biomedical engineering focuses on our complex relationship with technology and a better way of living and working.
Supported by: International Visegrad Fund