The Tech Brief

A few weeks ago, the UN Secretary General proposed as part of its input on the Global Digital Compact to set up a one-stop-shop that would have radical implications for the current internet governance. We discuss the potential implications of the proposal and the ongoing discussions on the politicisation of the internet with Vittorio Bertola, Head of Policy & Innovation at Open-Xchange, and Lise Fuhr, Director General for European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO).

The platform work directive is due to reach Labour ministers next Monday 12 June in the hope to agree a common position among member states – after months of a stalemate. We talk about the potential impacts of the bill on platforms with Andrew Byrne, Uber's Global Head of Public Policy.

Putting European data outside the reach of foreign jurisdictions has been a recurring theme for EU policymakers, with some initiatives criticised for protectionism. We discuss what Europe’s strive for digital sovereignty means for the cloud market and the possible solutions currently available with Joe Baguley, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President for EMEA at VMware.

The UK is discussing a data protection reform that would distance its regime from the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Meanwhile, the US has been working on an alternative standard for international data flows. We discuss these developments and how GDPR enforcement trends are influencing the global conversation on data protection with Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, Vice President for Global Privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum, and Rafi Azim-Khan, Head of Data Privacy at Pillsbury Law.

The discussion around AI and its impact on society has accelerated following the release of ChatGPT. But what is really new about these AI models? What the societal problems they could lead to and how can they be mitigated? We try to go beyond the hype with Mark Surman, Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation.

Andrea Jelinek has been the first Chair of the European Data Protection Board since the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation came to life. We discussed with her the first five years of GDPR enforcement, the progress that still needs to be done in terms harmonisation and the data protection challenge posed by disruptive Artificial Intelligence like ChatGPT.

Last week, the EU Commission presented a proposal for a Cyber Solidarity Act. We discuss the draft law and how it fits within the European cybersecurity strategy with Iva Tasheva, cybersecurity lead at CYEN, and Francesco Bordone, manager for cybersecurity policies at the European Cyber Security Organisation.

With continuous technological developments, companies seeking to jump on the digitalisation train increasingly face a talent shortage for data-related skills. We discuss how this trend is playing out in Germany with Jan Büchel, an economist at the German Economic Institute who recently researched the demand for data skills in German companies by analysing online job advertisements.

Behind great Artificial Intelligence, there is great computing power. Computing capacity is a much under-discussed aspect of the AI race, on which we tried to shed some light with Vili Lehdonvirta, professor at the Oxford Internet Institute.