Another important issue linked to the sustainability agenda is our ability to trust the technologies implemented in our society. And, it’s not looking good.

Firstly, there is digital manipulation. The development of fake news and deepfakes makes it almost impossible to trust what we read and see today. Most deepfake videos are currently just for amusement, but they could have more serious motives as they improve and make it almost impossible to differentiate between fact and fiction. We seriously now talk about a Post-Truth era.

Secondly, we must consider who owns and controls all the data and information collected about us. How can we trust that it won’t be misused to nudge us in certain directions or harm us in some way? In the EU we have GDPR, but we are currently quite alone globally with this strong set of rules.

A third aspect is surveillance. The cameras and microphones built into pretty much everything we use increase the risk of ‘being watched’. Many people have experienced talking about a very specific topic, only to have ads popping up on their mobile targeting that exact topic just seconds later. It might be a coincidence. But then again…

Cybercrime is still a major concern. Techniques like CEO-fraud and phishing can lure us into making bad decisions. Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks and ransomware are used to take companies down by infiltrating IT systems and networks. These techniques keep advancing and getting more sophisticated.

Finally, we see AI systems designed, built, trained, and managed on data sets that risk the introduction of bias (not necessarily with wrong intentions). Machine learning algorithms can´t be smarter than the data used to train them. We are seeing deep learning algorithms that make critical decisions regarding our health or financial situations, without the ability to tell us how they reached certain conclusions. They lack transparency and traceability.

So, there is a lot to fix. Fortunately, Denmark is a pioneer in this field. We are one of the first countries in the world to release a national strategy for Artificial Intelligence and has launched an AI Ethics Board. It is also a Dane, Margrethe Vestager, who will lead the work in making EU fit for the digital age.

I predict that 2020 will be the year when debate around technology and trust goes from being an elitist to a common topic, relevant to us all. We need more discussion and must be more aware of the personal implications. Our actions have consequences which we all need to understand.