KDDC 2EN17 - Technopolitics : How tech giants shape power in the 21st century

The founding promises of the Internet, openness and collaboration, have been transformed and privatized by hypertrophied Tech platforms. Their business model, based on collecting and processing big data on a large scale (data economy) is by nature oligopolistic, leading to the emergence of Tech gatekeepers (Tech Giants) as powerful as States. The numerous side effects in terms of a new geopolitical reconfiguration, hybrid warfare, hyperwar with the military use of AI are weakening traditional states' sovereignty, shaping new public spaces through private companies spreading sometimes their own ideologies (X/Twitter with Elon Musk for example). Tech giants have also taken on a major role in geopolitics as the US-China trade war simmers : Tech isn't just a player in the domestic political process, it's also a geopolitical proxy for nation states. Geopolitical, political and democratic stakes are thus of a rare intensity: how to qualify these new forms of power ? How are they redesigning the global geopolitical framework ? What kind of governance can we imagine on a national and international scale? How can we think of economic and political models based on AI and hyperspeed technologies that are socially acceptable within the framework of our fundamental rights and state of law ? This course invites students to explore the consequences of these new hot topics as technology is inherently political.

Asma MHALLA

Séminaire

English

None.

Spring 2024-2025

1. Participation active aux sessions de réflexions collectives en séance (20%). 2. Travail individuel : écriture d'une analyse critique de travaux d'un Tech Thinker (dans un liste qui sera proposée en séance 1) à partir d'une problématisation de la question centrale de son travail. Travail à rendre pour la séance 6 (80%).