The Small Signal #5: When digital governance ideals meet implementation constraints. This week's issue of my newsletter covers: 🇹🇼 Taiwan's deepfake counterstrike 📚 Coalition S retreats 🇪🇺 EU standardizes VR... before it exists Read the analysis here: anselmkuesters.substack.com/p/the-small-...

The Small Signal #4 is live! This issue delivers 3 signals on the maturation of decentralized digital infrastructure - and the tensions that come with it. ➡️ Wikipedia's paradox ➡️ AI's "middle field" ➡️ NFT utility beyond speculation Read the full issue: anselmkuesters.substack.com/p/the-small-...

The Small Signal #3 is live: AI's environmental debate shifts from panic to precision. Three key signals in this week's edition: - AI water usage claims corrected - decentralized training grids now viable, - an emerging digital ESG divide Full analysis: anselmkuesters.substack.com/p/the-small-...

Are we building digital democracies or just renting them? In The Small Signal #2, I look at a divergence: While cities like Buenos Aires are building transparent, human-in-the-loop AI systems, the German government is reinforcing its dependence on US tech giants. open.substack.com/pub/anselmku...

🎯 First edition of "The Small Signal" is live! Three signals worth watching: → Why tiny recursive models might beat massive LLMs → China's open-source AI swarm strategy → The emerging vertical data moat advantage Read on Substack: anselmkuesters.substack.com/p/the-small-...

Launching "The Small Signal" – a Substack newsletter on human-scale digital economies. Each week: 2-3 signals (new research, policies, etc) that tell us something deeper about decentralizing tech power. Issue #1 this afternoon, then weekly Fridays. Subscripe: anselmkuesters.substack.com/subscribe

Europa diskutiert gerade intensiv über digitale Souveränität. Das ist wichtig. Aber wir tun es in der Sprache der Abwehr. Wir wollen uns schützen vor Big Tech, vor Abhängigkeiten, vor Kontrollverlust. Was uns fehlt, ist die positive Vision: Was wollen wir eigentlich erschaffen? Wofür stehen wir? /1

What if the Luddites had won? Not with hammers, but with policy. On Tuesday, I will be using counterfactual historiography at Stuttgart University to address a key issue in the governance of AI: how can computational power be redistributed effectively? www.igma.uni-stuttgart.de/institut/new...

If you ask Google’s AI “Which rum goes best with an Espresso Martini?”, you won’t get 10 blue links; you’ll get 1 convincing-sounding answer. This is key for brand visibility. Yesterday, I spoke at the 24. German Spirits Industry Forum in Bonn about how AI is reshaping competition in this sector.

The EU Space Act, planned for 2030, aims to address our fragmented regulatory landscape. Having 13 member states with 13 different rulebooks is absurd for a sector that literally operates above borders. In practice, however, my colleague Matthias Kullas and I have identified several problems.

Die neue #ApplyAI-Strategie der EU tauscht Diskussionen über KI-Risiken gegen praktische Anwendung. Endlich, findet @anselmkuesters.bsky.social vom Centrum für Europäische Politik #Cep. Doch die Strategie kranke an einem Sammelsurium bestehender Programme ohne klare Prioritäten 👉 t1p.de/7uevq

Erstsemesterbegrüßung: Warum sollte man heute noch DH studieren, wenn „Vibe-Coding“ Code per Gespräch schreibt, KI angeblich ganze Berufe ersetzt, Deepfakes die Realität verzerren und Europa scheinbar erfolglos nach digitaler Souveränität sucht? Kurz: Weil DH genau hier zur Zukunftskompetenz wird.

Which trade-offs are involved in EU digital policymaking? Together with Cecilia Sottilotta, I am pleased to share our new article, “Coping With the Digital Trilemma? Trade-Offs and Risks in EU Digital Policy”, now published in European Policy Analysis. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A more in-depth version of our argument about the impact of the EU AI Act on SMEs is now available as cepInput 17/2025 (@cepger.bsky.social). It's titled "SMEs Worldwide Must Prepare Now for Europe’s New Ambitious AI Regulation", again co-authored with @bwaber.bsky.social. www.cep.eu/eu-topics/de...

October is approaching – and with it the start of the winter semester at the University of Stuttgart. Our open colloquium is primarily aimed at our Master's students, but is open to anyone interested in interdisciplinary exchange in the Digital Humanities. More info: www.hsozkult.de/event/id/eve...

Publication alert: My Harvard Business Review article with @bwaber.bsky.social argues that SMEs should turn the EU AI Act’s demands into a competitive advantage. The idea that only Big Tech can survive is often exaggerated, as the Act contains numerous SME-friendly measures. hbr.org/2025/09/how-...

Too much discussion has been devoted to what the EU's AI Act means for large tech companies rather than the implications for startups, SMEs, and antitrust. @anselmkuesters.bsky.social and I finally correct that in our new HBR piece hbr.org/2025/09/how-...

Der 55. Deutsche Historikertag, der erstmals in Bonn stattfand, neigt sich dem Ende zu. Bereits zum Auftakt am Dienstag durfte ich in der Sektion „Geteilte Macht? Traditionelle Hermeneutik und Digitale Methoden im Dialog“ 2 Fallstudien aus meinem Habilitationsprojekt vorstellen. @cepger.bsky.social

Our latest #Impact page on ‘Rights in the Digital Age’ spotlights research on AI regulation, privacy, content moderation, and surveillance. From UN AI resolutions to TikTok’s ‘ban’, our scholars unpack law’s role in shaping digital rights: law.mpg.de/impact/right... @anselmkuesters.bsky.social

How does the law change when the cost of sending a legal threat drops to almost zero? The next online seminar of the @maxplancklaw.bsky.social Law | Tech | Society initiative will deal with "Automated Private Enforcement: Evidence from the Google Fonts Case". Register via: law.mpg.de/event/automa...

Pleased to share that my research is featured in Max Planck Law’s latest Impacts report, "Rights in the Digital Age", alongside colleagues across the network exploring AI governance, the US TikTok “ban,” content moderation, clinical AI, and data privacy. Read the feature: law.mpg.de/impact/right...

How do you measure feelings that were experienced a hundred years ago? At the 55th German Historians' Conference, I will be discussing how far digital methods can take us when we want to capture and interpret historical emotions – and where we need to set limits. www.historikertag.de/Bonn2025/pro...

In der gestrigen Ausgabe des Tagesspiegel durfte ich einen Meinungsbeitrag mit dem Titel „Entscheiden ChatGPT & Co. bald, wen wir wählen?“ veröffentlichen. KI-Anwendungen sind nicht neutral. In meiner Antwort skizziere ich die Folgen. @cepger.bsky.social www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/digi...

Two fantastic days at the Walter Eucken Institute in Freiburg have come to an end! As someone from Freiburg, it was particularly nice to contribute to the ‘Economy and Power: Competition Policy of the Freiburg School for the Digital Age' in my hometown - a topic that could not be more relevant.

Was hat die Schöpfungsgeschichte mit der Finanzwelt zu tun? Am 11.9. darf ich mit Amelie Rüppel eine Veranstaltung zum Thema „Die Schöpfungsgeschichte - Ein Nachhaltigkeitsnarrativ unter vielen?“ in der Evangelischen Akademie Frankfurt moderieren. www.evangelische-akademie.de/kalender/die...

Was hat die Schöpfungsgeschichte mit der Finanzwelt zu tun? Am 11.9. darf ich mit Amelie Rüppel eine Veranstaltung zum Thema „Die Schöpfungsgeschichte - Ein Nachhaltigkeitsnarrativ unter vielen?“ in der Evangelischen Akademie Frankfurt moderieren. www.evangelische-akademie.de/kalender/die...

Increasingly, LLMs are becoming critical gatekeepers to information. My latest @cepger.bsky.social policy brief introduces a new framework for understanding how LLMs concentrate economic and political power in ways that traditional antitrust tools struggle to address. www.cep.eu/eu-topics/de...

It's been a privilege to help shape the ‘Max Planck Law | Tech | Society’ initiative. What started as a forum to unpack algorithmic accountability has evolved right alongside the technology it scrutinizes. In the linked feature, I touched on this shift: law.mpg.de/news/spotlig... @cepger.bsky.social

Freut mich, ein Update zu unserer @cepger.bsky.social Studie „State Aid for Clean Technologies in the EU" zu geben: Unser Forschungsansatz und die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse sind jetzt auch als ausführlicher Fachbeitrag auf EU Law Live erschienen: eulawlive.com/competition-...

Today sees the publication of my new @cepger.bsky.social study ‘State Aid for Clean Technologies in the EU’, which I co-authored with Andre Wolf. We analysed 2,073 state aid decisions by the EU Commission and 258,596 individual awards using a ‘text-as-data’ workflow. www.cep.eu/eu-topics/de...

Virtual worlds are about to get a lot more crowded, and not just with humans, as I argued at the 2. International Metaverse Congress in Alicante, Spain, this week. My presentation examined how genAI is enabling agents that can navigate complex virtual environments without explicit programming.

In „Exploring Laws of Robotics: A Synthesis of Constitutional AI and Constitutional Economics”, just published in Digital Society, Manuel Wörsdörfer and I argue that system prompts are the “constitution” governing LLM behavior. Right now, private firms write these rules unilaterally. rdcu.be/epvwB

KI-Agenten ohne Aufsicht? Am Samstag durfte ich in der Fuldaer Zeitung einen Gastkommentar zum Thema der autonomen KI-Agenten veröffentlichen. "Wenn wir autonomen Agenten das Feld überlassen, fehlt der KI-getriebenen Wirtschaft von morgen das Grundelement, das jeden jungen Markt trägt: Vertrauen.“

Man stelle sich vor, der nächste Verhandlungspartner im Netz ist kein Mensch, sondern ein KI-Agent, der nicht nur Preise vergleicht, sondern selbstständig Verträge abschließt, Emotionen vortäuscht – und im Zweifelsfall schummelt. Meine neue @cepger.bsky.social Analyse: www.cep.eu/de/eu-themen...

The fear of a suddenly awakening super-intelligence threatens to make us lose sight of how innovation normally works: slowly and full of frictional losses. This is the argument behind my new guest article for the @tspbackground.bsky.social (in German): background.tagesspiegel.de/digitalisier...

How can the EU effectively shape its digital future, moving beyond reacting to technological shifts? My new article, "Future-proofing the EU: ordoliberal governance and algorithmic regulation," just published in Constitutional Political Economy, addresses this key question. rdcu.be/eklEd

My article ‘Digital Democracy 2.0: Europe's media at a crossroads’, co-authored with Matthias Störring, was published in the Audit Committee Quarterly(KPMG). How can we shape our digital media landscape to strengthen democratic values? @cepger.bsky.social audit-committee-institute.de/html/de/quar...

Europe's AI future will not be decided by the size of its data centres, but by the clarity of our strategy and the courage to innovate structurally. In the current issue of DUP UNTERNEHMER magazine, I discuss this thesis in an interview with Kathy Günther. @cepger.bsky.social

Re-upping this: @anselmkuesters.bsky.social and I examine the concept of technological unemployment and how to improve economic research into the effects of technology on employment. #EconSky #econhist

Heute startet unser MA-Kolloquium Digital Humanities an der Universität Stuttgart. Immer mittwochs von 17:30–19:00 Uhr bieten wir spannende Vorträge, Diskussionen und Einblicke in aktuelle DH-Forschung – offen für alle Interessierten, ob intern oder extern. www.ilw.uni-stuttgart.de/lehre/digita...

Quantentechnologie sei eine Chance für Europa, den digitalen Rückstand aufzuholen, schreibt @anselmkuesters.bsky.social. In der Meldung von @corinnav.bsky.social lesen Sie, was die EU aus Sicht des Forschers dafür tun sollte: table.media/europe/news/...

My new @cepger.bsky.social study argues that quantum computing has moved beyond just a numbers game focused on boosting qubit counts. With the forthcoming EU Quantum Strategy and an EU Chips Act 2.0, Europe has the chance to secure computational sovereignty. www.cep.eu/eu-topics/de...

In der Österreichischen Zeitschrift für Kartellrecht (ÖZK 1/2025, S. 29-31) ist meine Doktorarbeit „The Making and Unmaking of Ordoliberal Language“ nun ausführlich rezensiert worden. Mein Dank gilt Jacob Kornbeck für die gründliche Auseinandersetzung mit der Arbeit. biblioscout.net/article/99.1...

💥 New Working Paper 💥 While #EconSky is talking about tariffs today, @anselmkuesters.bsky.social and I investigate another "t"-term that is controversial in economics: Technological Unemployment 📄: ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid... #futureofwork #econhist (1/n)

As of yesterday, and for the summer term 2025, I have the honor of holding the deputy professorship for Digital Humanities at the University of Stuttgart. In addition to heading the Digital Humanities Department at the Institute for Literary Studies, this involves maintaining the Master's program.

The 3rd draft of the EU GPAI Code of Practice promises a more targeted approach focused on large AI providers but has weakened its stance on systemic risks. In today's publication for @cepger.bsky.social, I argue that the final version must ensure a level playing field. www.cep.eu/eu-topics/de...

Vorgestern ging das zweitägige DBI-Fachforum Wasserstoff-Technologien in Speyer zu Ende. Als Fachbereichsleiter für Neue Technologien am @cepger.bsky.social durfte ich einen Vortrag zum Thema „Von Maschinenstürmern zu KI-Skeptikern: Technologiewiderstand im Wandel der Zeit“ beisteuern.

Was weiß die #Medienökonomik über Desinformation, Algorithmen und Hassrede? Welchen Rahmen muss die Medienpolitik setzen, damit sich alle Menschen eine umfassende Meinung bilden können? - Damit Demokratie leben kann. Antworten im aktuellen Zeitgespräch ⤵️ www.wirtschaftsdienst.eu/inhalt/jahr/...

Ich freue mich, dass unser Beitrag "Ein Ordnungsrahmen für die 'schöne neue Welt' der digitalen Medien" nun im Wirtschaftsdienst erschienen ist. Gemeinsam mit Matthias Störring analysiere ich die Herausforderungen für den Mediensektor im digitalen Zeitalter. www.wirtschaftsdienst.eu/inhalt/jahr/...

Excited to share this new #SpecialIssue featuring my research on generative AI! My contribution examines the ethical implications and practical applications of LLMs in scholarly work. @cepger.bsky.social