Who Governs the Algorithm?

Artificial intelligence is often sold to us as convenience: a faster way to search, write, translate, organise or decide. But if AI systems increasingly shape what people see, which voices are amplified and how decisions are made, then the question is no longer only technical. It becomes political.

In a new European Cultural Foundation(ECF) interview, Matthias Pfeffer, founding director of the Council for European Public Space, reflects on AI, power, democracy and digital sovereignty. The conversation draws on his book The Open Future and Its Enemies: How We Can Protect Free Society from AI Dictatorship, co-written with Jürgen Pfeffer and Paul Nemitz, which challenges the idea that technological development is inevitable. For Pfeffer, the future remains open only if democratic societies choose to keep it open.

This speaks directly to ECF’s work on European Digital Citizenship. A democratic Europe needs digital spaces where people can find reliable information, encounter different perspectives, protect their rights and take part in public life with confidence. Pfeffer’s interview moves the debate beyond fear of a distant machine takeover and towards the choices already facing us now: who controls the systems that shape public life, and how can citizens, institutions and civil society keep democratic agency alive?