Ban Ki-moon’s keynote and interesting conversations about digital technologies, security and democracy in Tampere Conversations 2022

I was invited to Tampere Conversations on 11.-12.8.2022 to represent the UN Youth of Finland. The conference was organized by Tampere University, City of Tampere, Tampere Chamber of Commerce and Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the theme of the first Tampere Conversations was “Digital Technologies: Opportunities and Threats for Security, Democracy and Economy”. The aim of the international event was to gather academia, political decision-makers, business leaders, technology experts and cyber security professionals to discuss the relation of technology, security, democracy and economy and how to proceed. 

During the event many interesting speeches and conversations were had about various topics and we also had an honor to hear the keynote speech from the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He talked about the main crises of the world, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, climate change and Covid-19 (and other epidemics and pandemics), while reminding how they are all interlinked and how especially climate change is the biggest crisis of our time. This means more efforts are needed to reach the sustainable development goals with multilateral and multi-stakeholder cooperation where all of the society, including civil society and businesses are also taking part. 

This means more efforts are needed to reach the sustainable development goals with multilateral and multi-stakeholder cooperation where all of the society, including civil society and businesses are also taking part. 

Ban Ki-moon

Another insightful keynote speech about technology and politics was held by a barrister and author Jamie Susskind who is “recognised worldwide as one of the leading intellectuals of the digital age.” His key message was that we need to start treating technology as citizens, not only as consumers of technology. 

In the modern day the machine learning systems are as good as the data they are fed, more and more devices are connected to the internet and our society has an increasing amount of data. Susskind talked about their relation to politics and how much power for example those people have who create digital systems and code the rules they are programmed to follow. The internet era has also changed the relationships in democracies, especially because of social media, and the polarization and fake news happening there that have increased because AI allows it. Finally, he also talked about the relation between justice systems and algorithms that are already dominating the world of jobs, credits, mortgages and insurance, for example. The algorithms treat individuals in the way that they are programmed, which can cause discrimination against minor groups, for example. However, our legal systems are not up to date with those algorithms. 

We need to start treating technology as citizens, not only as consumers of technology. 

Jamie Susskind

A lot of the information, especially regarding digital technologies was new for me, but I am highlighting some of the interesting topics discussed, especially linked to democracy and security. 

The former prime minister of Estonia Taavi Rõivas, a French advisor in international relations and a founder of Gambit Igor Lys and the president of Sitra Jyrki Katainen discussed if there is an alternative for representative democracy in the digital society. Unfortunately, non-democratic states have long ago realized that digital is political by using digital means to surveil citizens, for example. But in democratic states the citizens’ opinions could be heard more often than every election cycle through digital platforms because the society is more complex and digital than before. 

Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, who is a venture capitalist, technology executive, writer, and an artificial intelligence expert spoke about how the US and China are the biggest in AI in their own fields and how their cooperation is needed. General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), the Wall Street Journal’s national security and foreign policy editor Sharon Weinberger, Danish intelligence officer Morten Kromann and professor Pekka Appelqvist talked about the new global security policy and especially focused on how digital transformation has changed warfare. 

The event fulfilled its aim to bring together people from different sectors of the society to look at solutions and scenarios now and in the future where digital technologies, democracy and security should be intertwined in a way that they only benefit people’s lives.

The event fulfilled its aim to bring together people from different sectors of the society to look at solutions and scenarios now and in the future where digital technologies, democracy and security should be intertwined in a way that they only benefit people’s lives. The organizers are planning to have the second Tampere Conversations in two years and I wish an even more varied guest list and speakers will be invited then. 

Nanna Hallikainen

Association Coordinator of the UN Youth of Finland