[event] Marco Almada: The Hidden Costs of Technology-Neutral Regulation

Speaker: Marco Almada is a researcher working on matters of law and technology. He currently works as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Cyber Policy at the University of Luxembourg, focusing on AI regulation and cybersecurity. His research is directed towards theoretical and doctrinal issues in regulation, with a special focus on the learning mechanisms used for navigating scenarios of deep socio-technical uncertainty. He has written extensively on the regulatory frameworks being designed for AI technologies and on the governance of AI in the public sector.

Description: Technology neutrality appears in instruments ranging from WTO trade rules to EU legislation on AI and platform governance, yet scholars and policymakers consistently struggle to define what it requires in practice. Marco Almada’s paper proposes a unifying framework: technology-neutral regulation is a delegation of power, specifically the power to determine how general rules apply to particular technologies. That reframing connects otherwise disparate accounts in the literature and explains why technology-neutral approaches often fall short or produce unintended side effects. Applied to EU digital regulation, the framework shows how abstraction from technical detail concentrates power in the hands of certain public and private actors while weakening existing accountability mechanisms.

Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).

Format: Marco Almada will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.