Techplomacy

From freedom of speech to fake news and AI. In a largely unregulated digital world, a 33-year-old Danish woman is appointed tech ambassador with a global mandate. At just 33 years old, Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard is taking on the world’s most powerful tech companies – from Silicon Valley to the UN – and pushing for regulation, accountability, and digital rights. Everything from democracy and freedom of speech to social cohesion is under pressure from new technologies. Denmark was the first country in the world to appoint a tech ambassador, and in
that role, Meldgaard must navigate a minefield of interests. With her new base in Silicon Valley, she has been tasked with working for the values that characterize an open and liberal society. Meldgaard has a plan for the change and future she would like to see. But she is also up against immensely powerful forces that write their own rules, and where capital and data flows are just as important as the desire for a democratic and humane future. And with a new US administration under Donald Trump, all progress is at risk of being wiped out. Will we return to a state of lawlessness – a digital Wild West?