Andrew Keen was among the earliest to write about the dangers that the Internet poses to our society and culture. This February the internet critic is publishing his new book How to Fix The Future, where he focuses on how people all over the world are solving the most pressing problems of the digital revolution. “I travelled 200,000 miles and interviewed more than 100 entrepreneurs, technologists and politicians to research the book. So it’s packed with practical solutions to everything from surveillance capitalism and fake news to Internet addiction and the existential threat of artificial intelligence,” says Keen.
The former entrepreneur has adressed the problems and dangers of the Internet since ten years, but only now slowly sees a change in people, more and more having a critical view and acknowledging the problems. Nevertheless, his new book is way more optimistic, then his previous. He identified five broad strategies to tackle the digital future: competitive innovation, government regulation, consumer choice, social responsibility by business leaders, and education: “I have found people who are trying to fix the future.” One of the people who really influenced me on my view and who is part of the book is Paul-Bernhard Kallen. The Burda CEO joined Keen on the stage, directly diving into the hot debate of the previous panel with Elliot Schrage of Facebook. Kallen states: “From my perspective Facebook is a media company and media companies have responsibility for their content.”
Going on discussing the responsibility of tech companies towards society. Kallen is convinced, that we are all building the same society and tech companies cant pull out of that. It is everyones responsibility and we need to develop together the future we want to live in. Furthermore, addressing a much discussed topic at DLD: AI and Morality. Kallen is not afraid of AI. Though he thinks, that it needs discussion on how much we want to influence: “We should be careful when it comes to questions like deciding whether a child is born or not. But in general, AI is enlarging our opportunities rather than reducing them.”
Discussing the pressing topic of Europe’s position in comparison to China and the US Keen asks: “You are in the 60s minute of a football match and 3-0 down to the US. Can you catch up?” Paul-Bernhard Kallen replies: “I do not foresee that we will have a company of market a 500 billion dollar capacity. But we will have many smaller companies – which fits better to the European environment.”