Paradigms
Unpacking the Leitmotiv of our digital future – where we are now, where we're going, and who is setting the direction? Each week, Zuzana and Max discuss the latest developments and public debates in the digital sphere to figure out our future and ask: Is this where we, as a society, want to go? This podcast is part of our mission as an independent think-tank focused on operationalizing values in our digital future. Together with you, we want to imagine a Leitmotiv (’vision’) for a digital world that is grounded in societal values and mobilize our power to shape it. Follow us on...
How hyperscale came to town┊Where the Cloud Touches the Ground (EP1)
Our first story of real data center resistance begins with Marina Otero Verzier, a Spanish architect, researcher, and Harvard GSD lecturer. In her search for more eco-social data centers in Chile and Spain, Marina pushed the voice of local communities up to the level of government at a moment when hyperscale companies wanted to be louder, and helped develop Chile's first National Data Center Plan with those communities' concerns in mind.
But information asymmetry, timing, and bureaucratic pressures on small municipalities turn out to be among the most decisive factors shaping the tactics of...
(Teaser) SPECIAL PODCAST SERIES: Where the Cloud Touches the Ground
An AI-driven data center boom has led to a global frenzy to find land, power, water, and servers for these digital infrastructures. As the material consequences of this data center race become real, local communities are starting to push back as protests and litigation aimed at local data center projects errupt all over the world. In this podcast series, we unpack commonalities in local data center activism and the problems it confronts: from environmental damage to local nuisance and from the impact on local democracy to effects on local economies. At the same time, we aim to uncover what...
Is AI Compute A Public Utility?
If compute is to AI what energy is to an aluminum plant, what happens when we start treating it like a utility? As 2025 draws to a close, tech firms have already poured over $400 billion into AI infrastructure globally – and AI continues to reshape our world with each passing second.
While AI tools and products become woven into government services, businesses, and our daily routines, we stop to ask: shouldn't the providers of compute infrastructure be considered public utilities? And if so, what opportunities arise?
In this episode, we revisit ou...
Shaping the EU Cloud and AI Development Act
How can we create responsible regulation when the AI race has just begun and there's still little evidence of its benefits for the European market and society? As the European Commission seeks public input on its upcoming Cloud & AI Development Act and its potential impacts, it aims to build more European data centers to match the economic power of the US and China in AI & cloud computing. But is it feasible and what do we do about the missing data?
In this episode, Zuzana and Max for the first time welcome Leitmotiv's co-founder Christiaan...
On The Illusion of AI Agents and Keeping Human Value
As large investments are being poured into artificial intelligence technology, tech companies paint a picture of a near future where AI agents do most work for you – but is that realistic? What even is an AI agent and how does it differ from assistants like ChatGPT?
With companies claiming that these technologies can become autonomous workers able to handle complex tasks independently, it's crucial to understand the difference between real capability versus a marketing narrative. As AI emerges in different forms and creates new dependencies across all industries and spheres, a reality check on th...
Deconstructing Meta’s Large Scale Attention Factory
What happens when a tech giant becomes a media monopoly? As Meta faces scrutiny over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, hosts Zuzana Ľudviková and Max Schulze explore Meta's ongoing antitrust trial with the US Federal Trade Commission and examine Meta's identity and inner workings – as a media conglomerate and a large-scale attention factory fueled by users' free labor of watching and scrolling.
Without proper regulations, the digital media marketplace risks becoming an unregulated Wild West where user interests take a backseat to corporate greed, influencing policymaking in both the United States and Europe.
