Code red for democracy: when Big Tech becomes bigger than government

What if a handful of corporations could decide what you see, believe and even think? This isn’t science fiction or a distant dystopia – it’s the world we’re living in. Tech giants like Google, Meta and Amazon now control the AI systems that shape our daily lives: what news we read, what we buy, who we date and what we consider “true”. As these companies race to deploy ever more powerful AI – without oversight – they’re not just building better search engines or chatbots; they’re creating a monopoly over human perception itself.

Join Professor Alexandra Andhov for an urgent wake-up talk about how Big Tech’s unchecked AI development threatens the foundations of society. This goes far beyond privacy or competition – it’s about who controls the lens through which we see the world. The window for meaningful regulation is closing fast and the question isn’t whether we can afford to act – it’s whether we can afford not to. Discover why the most critical battle of our time isn’t unfolding in courtrooms, parliaments or the US Congress, but in server farms and algorithms – and what we must do before it’s too late.

Bio

Professor Alexandra Andhov is the chair in Law and Technology at the University of Auckland and director of the Centre for Advancing Law and Technology Responsibly (ALTeR). Alexandra specialises in the regulation of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain and has published extensively on these topics, including her work Computational Law, which explores how technology is reshaping legal thinking itself. She is a Fulbright scholar and a regular Forbes contributor who works closely with tech start-ups and regulatory bodies on understanding how law must evolve to keep pace with rapidly advancing technology.

Event

8:00pm @Oakroom, 17 Drake Street, Auckland Central, Auckland 1010

Also speaking at this location at 6:00pm is Claire Meehan