Over the last decade, a degree of cynicism has set in regarding how society views the internet’s impact on democracy. What is the impact of digital tools on non-democracies when a majority of the global population lives in far less than “full democracy.” Does the internet offer repressed citizens an arena to network, organize, and, ultimately, make their voices heard offline, or is the internet simply another tool wielded by authoritarian regimes to maintain dominance?

Hidden Layers is our new technology newsletter covering tech policy developments in the United States and the European Union, to keep both sides of the Atlantic informed on a quarterly basis.

Written by elected officials, staffers, and private sector experts on both sides of the Atlantic, The Human Program: A Transatlantic AI Agenda for Reclaiming Our Digital Future is a collection of essays and policy recommendations that transpired from the 2020 edition of our transatlantic exchange program, the Congressional European Parliamentary Initiative (CEPI).

This publication stems from a simple observation: across the world, humanity navigates a digital revolution that upends life as we knew it. And yet, despite the near universal impact of this revolution, the increased connectivity has resulted in misconnections.

The digital revolution is turning the global economy on its head. The most valuable workers in today’s labor market—the millennials creating billion-dollar empires with laptops and a case of La Croix—aren’t wearing white collars or blue collars and they certainly don’t own anything in pinstripes. The most coveted employees of our new economy wear no collar at all.