Episode 2306: Albert Wenger on how to save the Internet, Capitalism and the Planet

We are back in Munich at the DLD Conference, Europe’s foremost tech gathering. DLD is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and, to mark this occasion, we spoke to some of the leading DLD’ers about the tumultuous last twenty years. First up is the Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger, author of The World After Capital, who - in spite of all the problems of the last two decades - remains defiantly optimistic about the future. He emphasizes the need to move beyond "industrial age thinking" focused on physical capital toward solutions suited for the digital age, where attention is the primary constraint. On AI, Wenger believes we've reached a genuine breakthrough moment, suggesting a 10-15% chance of artificial superintelligence emerging within the next year or two. He advocates for open AI models rather than concentration among a few large tech companies, proposing copyright reforms to encourage transparency in AI development. Wenger also discusses his practical efforts to create positive change, including his universal basic income pilot in Hudson, NY, and initiatives promoting "steward ownership" to make capital more enabling and less extractive. He envisions a future where technological advances help solve climate change, disease, and food security challenges while restoring natural environments. Throughout our conversation, Wenger emphasizes the need for radical new experiments and policy approaches rather than incremental change, arguing that current systems and traditional political solutions are inadequate for addressing contemporary challenges.

Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures (USV). Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company’s sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). Albert is the author of the book The World After Capital. On his blog Continuations he writes about technology, science, philosophy and more. Albert graduated from Harvard College in economics and computer science and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT. Albert is married to Gigi Danziger. They have three grown children and live in New York City.

Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.