#6 Can politicians tame a wild technology like AI - KOMPAS DEBAT
AI is evolving faster than democracy can keep up. But how do you regulate something you don't fully understand - and which is constantly changing?
In KOMPAS DEBATE, we open the door to a special debate where Mikkel Flyverbom, Seemab Sheikh and Camilla Mehlsen focus on what it takes for politicians, officials and us as a society to take AI seriously.
Because AI is not one technology, but many. It's not just data and algorithms, but also a new reality that is transforming our workplaces, relationships and decision-making processes. And that's what makes it a wild problem - one that can't be solved with a single law or a new committee.
"We've given digital special status - but in reality, each minister should take responsibility for AI in their own area," Mikkel Flyverbom, professor and chair of the government's expert group on tech giants
Flyverbom calls for political backbone: The climate minister should not let AI override climate considerations. The Minister of Justice must ensure legal certainty - also in an algorithmic reality. AI should not be centralized. It must be distributed and anchored.
Not one technology
"We talk about AI as if it were one technology - it's like talking about sports without differentiating between sports," says Seemab Sheikh, Deputy Tech Ambassador
AI is many technologies with vastly different implications - and they require different policy responses. Without nuance, we make bad decisions.
Camilla Mehlsen, Digital Media Analyst, concludes by emphasizing that we have a particular consequence if we do not nuance our understanding of AI:
"We chase efficiency, but risk destroying intimacy," she says.
She warns against 'intimacy capitalism', where AI creeps into relationships, emotions and work life. When everything needs to be optimized, we risk losing the human touch.
So what does it take?
The message from the three panelists is a political system that dares to take technology seriously - not as a separate domain, but as part of all policy areas. A courage to stand firm, instead of running after Silicon Valley. And an understanding that the wildness of AI is not just about what the technology can do - but what we as a society want with it.
Listen in - and learn why AI is not just a technological issue, but a political stress test for our democracy.
The debate was part of an open debrief on INVI's innovation project Folketingets Vilde Uge - a collaboration between the Tuborg Foundation, the youth organization SAGA and the Danish Parliament's Committee for Digitalization and IT. The aim was to bring young people's knowledge into play and actively involve them in policy development to find pathways to responsible AI. Over 700 young people and experts participated with input on how AI can and should be regulated in the future.