Keynote SpeakerAnu Bradford

Popular Talks by Anu Bradford

• Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology

  The global battle among the three dominant digital powers—the United States, China, and the European Union—is intensifying. All three regimes are racing to regulate tech companies, with each advancing a competing vision for the digital economy while attempting to expand its sphere of influence in the digital world. In her… Read more

  The global battle among the three dominant digital powers—the United States, China, and the European Union—is intensifying. All three regimes are racing to regulate tech companies, with each advancing a competing vision for the digital economy while attempting to expand its sphere of influence in the digital world. In her talk based on her award-winning book Digital Empires, Anu Bradford explores a rivalry that will shape the world in the decades to come.

  Across the globe, people dependent on digital technologies have become increasingly alarmed that their rapid adoption and transformation have ushered in an exceedingly concentrated economy where a few powerful companies control vast economic wealth and political power, undermine data privacy, and widen the gap between economic winners and losers. In response, world leaders are variously embracing the idea of reining in the most dominant tech companies. Bradford examines three competing regulatory approaches—the American market-driven model, the Chinese state-driven model, and the European rights-driven regulatory model—and discusses how governments and tech companies navigate the inevitable conflicts that arise when these regulatory approaches collide in the international domain. Which digital empire will prevail in the contest for global influence remains an open question, yet their contrasting strategies are increasingly clear.

  Digital societies are at an inflection point. In the midst of these unfolding regulatory battles, governments, tech companies, and digital citizens are making important choices that will shape the future ethos of the digital society. Digital Empires lays bare the choices we face as societies and individuals, explains the forces that shape those choices, and illuminates the immense stakes involved for everyone who uses digital technologies.

• The Race to Regulate Artificial Intelligence

  Artificial intelligence is taking the world by storm. Generative AI technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way we work and interact with information and each other. At best, they allow humans to reach new frontiers of knowledge and productivity, transforming labor markets, remaking economies, and leading to unprecedented levels… Read more

  Artificial intelligence is taking the world by storm. Generative AI technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way we work and interact with information and each other. At best, they allow humans to reach new frontiers of knowledge and productivity, transforming labor markets, remaking economies, and leading to unprecedented levels of economic growth and societal progress.

  At the same time, the pace of AI development is unsettling technologists, citizens, and regulators alike. Even the ardent techno-enthusiasts are now issuing dire warnings on how unregulated AI can lead to uncontrollable harms, posing severe threats to individuals and societies.

  The excitement and concerns surrounding the adoption of AI technologies raise difficult questions about the best way to regulate those technologies. Already, three regulatory models are emerging, with the three leading digital powers—the United States, China, and the European Union—each pursuing a governance approach that reflects their distinct interests and values.

  The coming years will reveal not just winners and losers in a race to develop AI technologies. What will also be revealed is winners and losers among competing regulatory approaches that govern those technologies. These approaches will varyingly empower tech companies, governments, or digital citizens. The choices are stark and involve trade-offs that are vital for individuals and societies. How governments go about those choices will determine whether the unfolding AI revolution will serve democracy and deliver unprecedented economy prosperity or lead to grave societal harms, or even unprecedented catastrophe.

• The Brussels Effect

  For many observers, the European Union is mired in a deep crisis, battling sluggish economic growth, rising geopolitical insecurity, mounting costs associated with the war in Ukraine, the urgency to rebuild its energy infrastructure and internal challenges fueled by economic populism. The EU is also viewed as being at the… Read more

  For many observers, the European Union is mired in a deep crisis, battling sluggish economic growth, rising geopolitical insecurity, mounting costs associated with the war in Ukraine, the urgency to rebuild its energy infrastructure and internal challenges fueled by economic populism. The EU is also viewed as being at the mercy of the escalating trade and tech war between the leading technology powers, the US and China. As a result, the EU is seen as a declining power on the world stage.

  In her talk based on her award-winning book The Brussels Effect, Anu Bradford challenges this narrative of the EU’s weakness. Instead, she shows how the EU remains an influential superpower that shapes the world in its image due to a phenomenon she calls the “Brussels Effect”. By promulgating regulations that shape the international business environment, elevating standards worldwide, and leading to a notable Europeanization of many important aspects of global commerce, the EU has managed to shape policy in areas such as data privacy, consumer health and safety, environmental protection, antitrust, and online hate speech. And in contrast to how superpowers wield their global influence, the Brussels Effect – a phrase first coined by Bradford in 2012- absolves the EU from playing a direct role in imposing standards, as market forces alone are often sufficient as multinational companies voluntarily extend the EU rule to govern their global operations.

  The Brussels Effect shows how the EU has acquired such power, why multinational companies use EU standards as global standards, and why the EU’s role as the world’s regulator is likely to outlive its gradual economic decline, extending the EU’s influence long into the future.

• Remaking the Global Economic Order: How to Navigate the Storm?

  Today, global companies are facing unprecedented geopolitical upheaval. We have entered a new era of deglobalization where roiling trade and technology wars are remaking the global economic order. We are witnessing the decoupling of the digital economy, rupturing of Transatlantic alliance, and the unraveling of global supply chains. Governments are… Read more

  Today, global companies are facing unprecedented geopolitical upheaval. We have entered a new era of deglobalization where roiling trade and technology wars are remaking the global economic order. We are witnessing the decoupling of the digital economy, rupturing of Transatlantic alliance, and the unraveling of global supply chains. Governments are retreating into protectionism and techno-nationalism as concerns over national security and self-sufficiency replace their commitment to global cooperation and economic openness. In her keynote, Anu Bradford will help make sense of these developments, giving governments and companies tools to navigate the challenges ahead.

More talks

• The European Union as a Regulatory Superstate
• European Strategic Autonomy and European Sovereignty
• The Future of the EU
• Brexit, EU-UK trade relations
• Regulation of the Digital economy
• Data protection and GDPR
• US-China Trade and Tech War
• The Rise of Techno-protectionism
• Global Economy, International Trade
• Transatlantic Economic Relations
• Competition Policy
• Regulation of Artificial Intelligence
• AI Governance
• AI and Race for Technological Supremacy
• The US, EU and Chinese Approaches to AI Regulation
• European Competitiveness
• Impact of Trump Election on Europe
• Trade Wars
• International Trade Law

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