System Reset: Technology for a Democratic Europe
Saturday, 25 April
10:00 – 11:30
Room: Salle de Guichets
Digital technologies increasingly constitute the very infrastructure of our democracies, underpinning everything from voting systems to energy grids, armies and bureaucracies, healthcare and education, economic life and public debate. While the notion of technology being “neutral” was always an illusion, today Europe finds itself increasingly exposed to the blackmail of billionaires and foreign autocrats, undermining democratic agency, public trust, and collective autonomy.
This plenary seeks to move beyond both techno-optimism and purely defensive regulation to articulate counter narratives on technology and European sovereignty. Bringing together perspectives from Green politics, academia, industry, it asks what the foundations for an alternative vision could look like. What if we designed technology to serve people, prioritising participation over surveillance and resilience over dependency? And how can Europe reclaim technological agency when digital systems increasingly risk hollowing out trust, participation, and autonomy?
Speakers
Frank Karlitschek, CEO NextCloud
Frank Karlitschek is a long time open source contributor and former board member of the KDE e.V. He Nextcloud in 2016 to create a fully open source and decentralized alternative to big centralized cloud companies. Frank was an invited expert at the W3C to help to create the ActivityPub standard. Frank has spoken at MIT, CERN, Harvard and ETH and keynoted many events. Frank is the founder and CEO of Nextcloud GmbH. He is also a fellow of Open Forum Europe and an advisor to the United Nations regarding Open Source. Frank won the European SFS Free Software Award 2023 and the Acteurs du Libre European Award 2023.
Prof. Shannon Vallor, Co-Director, Centre for Technomoral Futures, author The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking
Prof. Shannon Vallor is the Baillie Gifford Chair of the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, where she serves as Co-Director of the Centre for Technomoral Futures and the UKRI BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides) programme. Professor Vallor’s research explores how AI and robotics reshape human character and capabilities. She is a former AI Ethicist at Google, a standing member of Stanford University’s 100-Year Study of Artificial Intelligence, and the 2026 recipient of the Barwise Prize from the American Philosophical Association. Her most recent book is The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking (Oxford University Press 2024).
Cyrielle Chatelain, MP, Europe Écologie Les Verts
Cyrielle Chatelain is a Member of the French National Assembly and has been leader of the Green Group (Greens and affiliated) since 2022. She was first elected in 2022 and re-elected in 2024. She previously served as co-chair of the French Young Greens and later worked as a political assistant and in various Green-led local cabinets, with a focus on housing and economic issues. More recently, her work has increasingly focused on digital policy, particularly the concentration of power in Big Tech and its implications for data protection and democratic sovereignty. She initiated a parliamentary inquiry committee on structural dependencies and vulnerabilities in the digital sector and the associated risks for France’s independence. The committee has conducted over 40 hearings, including a study visit to Brussels, and its report is expected in July.
Renata Ávila Pinto, CEO, Open Knowledge Foundation
Renata Avila Pinto is an international lawyer specialising in technology, data governance, intellectual property, digital trade, and privacy. As CEO of the Open Knowledge Foundation, she advocates for open data policies and technologies that promote equitable access to knowledge, accountability and digital sovereignty. She advises governments and international organisations on digital policies and digital infrastructure strategies. A former Stanford HAI fellow and an affiliate of the Centre for Internet and Society at CNRS, her research focuses on commons-based governance models for digital public infrastructure and AI. She has led legal and advocacy initiatives defending freedom of expression, privacy, and access to information, as well as the defence of whistleblowers, including Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum. Avila serves as an expert member of the UN working group on data governance at all levels and is a board member of Open Future and the Whistleblower Network in Germany.
Moderator: Seden Anlar, Journalist, Climate Communicator
Seden Anlar is a Brussels-based multimedia journalist, moderator, and podcast producer focused on human rights and holding power to account through storytelling. Over the past eight years, she has produced more than a dozen podcasts on climate, migration, social, and tech justice—reaching over 200,000 listeners across Europe and beyond, combining rigorous reporting with audience-centred storytelling to connect the dots between borders, histories, and movements.
