What Can America Learn from Europe About Regulating Big Tech? | The New Yorker

Schaake’s speech was a hairpin turn in rhetorical space. Where Schmidt emphasized the future, Schaake stressed the present; where Schmidt dwelled on the private and the technological, Schaake foregrounded the public and the political. “I’m going to talk about governance,” she began, before beginning a forceful critique of Big Tech’s extreme aversion to regulation, its unchecked collection of personal data, and its steady erosion of democracy. She brought up the ethics statements that committees and conferences like the one she was addressing tend to generate. “It’s a very popular topic,” she said, referring to A.I. ethics. “It’s also hard to be against ethics. . . . How do we make sure it’s meaningful and enforceable, and not just window dressing?”