Global voices on a better digital future
Communities across the globe are responding creatively to the ways technology shapes their lives — from historic, people-led battles against concentrated power in the hands of Big Tech to new visions for how technology can better serve people and society over profit. The Maybe x Luminate LIVE brings some of these voices to the forefront through live shows and podcast episodes spanning Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.
From local struggles to continent-wide movements, each conversation offers a window into how activists, researchers, creatives, and organizers challenge dominant models and build alternatives rooted in justice, care, and community.
Explore the regions
Explore the conversations below to see how these regional stories connect to a broader global effort to reimagine technology in service of people, society, and the planet.
Luminate x The Maybe
The Maybe is a media studio and collective challenging the power and politics of tech.
Together, we’ve partnered to spotlight the people & ideas shaping a more just digital future.
Europe’s AI Sovereignty Trap
Europe’s push for AI sovereignty is framed as a way to reduce dependence on US big tech and secure its economic future. But building more data centres and investing in AI infrastructure risks reinforcing the same concentration of power Europe is trying to escape.
Audrey Gaughran, the Executive Director of the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), argues that the sovereignty debate must go beyond infrastructure and regulation to question the economic model driving AI development, and who ultimately benefits from it.
"There isn't one single unified universal conversation on technology. Place matters, and people's ideas for what good tech could be is grounded in their own histories and backgrounds, contexts, aspirations, the vulnerabilities that they currently face."
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