EPISODE 201: Marketer of the Month Podcast with Dragoș Tudorache
Table of Contents
Hey there! Welcome to the Marketer Of The Month blog!
We recently interviewed Dragoș Tudorache for our monthly podcast – ‘Marketer of the Month’! We had some amazing insightful conversations with Dragoș and here’s what we discussed about –
1. Twin objectives of fostering AI innovation and protecting societal interests.
2. Complexities and importance of global collaboration in AI development.
3. An open-minded approach to policymaking from varied legal and leadership experiences.
4. Essential strategies and tactics for achieving balanced outcomes.
5. Role of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and AI Act in mitigating fake news.
6. The transversal nature of AI affects all economic sectors and societal interactions.
7. Navigating geopolitical competition and standard-setting in AI.
About our host:
Dr. Saksham Sharda is the Chief Information Officer at Outgrow.co. He specializes in data collection, analysis, filtering, and transfer by means of widgets and applets. Interactive, cultural, and trending widgets designed by him have been featured on TrendHunter, Alibaba, ProductHunt, New York Marketing Association, FactoryBerlin, Digimarcon Silicon Valley, and at The European Affiliate Summit.
About our guest:
Dragoș Tudorache is a Member of the European Parliament and chairs the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in the Digital Age. He began his career as a judge and later held key positions at the OSCE and UN missions. He managed strategic projects at the European Commission, including the Schengen Information System and VIS.
Governing AI: Lead Negotiator of European Union’s Ai Act Dragoș Tudorache Talks Compromise & Cooperation
The Intro!
Saksham Sharda: Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Outgrow’s Marketer of the Month. I’m your host, Dr. Saksham Sharda, and I’m the creative director at Outgrow. co. And for this month we are going to interview Dragoș Tudorache who is the Member of European Parliament.
Dragoș Tudorache: Great to be here. Thank you.
Don’t have time to read? No problem, just watch the Podcast!
Challenge yourself with this trivia about the exciting topics Dragoș Tudorache covered in the podcast.
Or you can just listen to it on Spotify!
The Rapid Fire Round!
Saksham Sharda : So let’s just jump right into the rapid fire round. You can only answer with one word or one sentence. The first one is, at what age do you want to retire?
Dragoș Tudorache: 60.
Saksham Sharda : How long does it take you to get ready? In the mornings?
Dragoș Tudorache: About half an hour.
Saksham Sharda : Most embarrassing moment of your life?
Dragoș Tudorache: Oof. Don’t know.
Saksham Sharda : Favorite color?
Dragoș Tudorache: Green.
Saksham Sharda : What time of day are you most inspired?
Dragoș Tudorache: Mornings.
Saksham Sharda : How many hours of sleep can you survive on?
Dragoș Tudorache: Six, seven.
Saksham Sharda : Fill in the blank. An upcoming Artificial Intelligence trend is ______.
Dragoș Tudorache: Amazing.
Saksham Sharda : The city in which the best kiss of your life happened.
Dragoș Tudorache: Yes. Romania.
Saksham Sharda : Pick one. Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk?
Dragoș Tudorache: None.
Saksham Sharda : The biggest mistake of your career?
Dragoș Tudorache: Don’t know. I don’t think I’ve made mistakes.
Saksham Sharda : How do you relax?
Dragoș Tudorache: I look at cars.
Saksham Sharda : How many cups of coffee do you drink per day
Dragoș Tudorache: Until a month ago, about four.
Saksham Sharda : A habit of yours that you hate.
Dragoș Tudorache: Smoking.
Saksham Sharda : The most valuable skill you’ve learned in life.
Dragoș Tudorache: Learning constantly.
Saksham Sharda : Your favorite Netflix show.
Dragoș Tudorache: I haven’t been watching Netflix. To have a favorite show.
Saksham Sharda : One-word description of your leadership style.
Dragoș Tudorache: Inclusive.
Saksham Sharda : Coffee or tea to kickstart your day.
Dragoș Tudorache: Coffee. But not since a month ago.
Saksham Sharda : Top priority in your daily schedule.
Dragoș Tudorache: Planning my day.
Saksham Sharda : Ideal vacation spot for relaxation.
Dragoș Tudorache: At my country house.
Saksham Sharda : Key factor for maintaining a work life balance.
Dragoș Tudorache: Having my family around.
The Big Questions!
Saksham Sharda: Okay. Well, that was the end of the rapid fire round. Now we can move on to the longer questions, which you can answer with as much time and ease as you like. The first one is as the chair of the special committee on artificial intelligence in the digital age, a IDA. You’re at the forefront of shaping EU policies on AI. How do you balance fostering innovation with ensuring ethical and responsible AI development?
Dragoș Tudorache: Well, by doing exactly what we did with the AI Act first of all setting both as not an either or, but rather as a twin objective that you follow through all of the work that you do. If the objective is to have a regulation or framework, a governance framework on AI, and this is what we did. We started off with the two objectives of protecting rights and interests of society on one hand and on the other, stimulating innovation, creating the conditions for growth. And again, not sacrificing one for the other, not in a binary logic, but in a complimentary logic. And I think that we have managed that and how you do it. You do it by making sure that you put the right safeguards in place in the text to fulfill that objective of protecting the rights and the interests of citizens. And at the same time, also introducing the enablers that the business needs in order to maintain an interest in being creative, in innovating, in staying in this jurisdiction and doing the very important business of developing and deploying ai. So if you do that, then you can fulfill both objectives.
Saksham Sharda: And how is international cooperation being improved in this regard?
Dragoș Tudorache: Well, international cooperation is something that I consider to be a must, but is not going to come easy because there is a competitive edge in this conversation. There is a geopolitical angle to AI one, which is not that evident four or five years ago when we started the journey of the AI Act. But which has become more and more evident over the last two years since the emergence of LLMs and generative AI with right now the entire universe, more or less being acutely aware of how important AI as a technology is for the future, for everything in this future, not only in economic terms, but also in societal and again, geopolitical terms. And therefore, the topic of corporation is no longer a given, it is no longer simple. Even partners who in a way understand the role of technology in society in the same way who are guided by the same values. Even there is an element of competitiveness, and whoever controls the key resources for artificial intelligence, from energy to data, to infrastructure and computers will also control a lot of the direction of travel for the technology. And then there’s also the competition over standards and governance and regulatory frameworks. And that’s where, again, even among friends, there is an element of competition that is inevitable. All this does not mean that we shouldn’t be, and that there shouldn’t be a constant struggle and effort invested in corporations because it’s the only way we can actually deal with what I think will be some remarkable evolutions of technology in the future. No jurisdiction, no matter how big, whether it’s US or Europe taken together, or China or anyone else could handle it alone, which means that there is, that there needs to be an effort invested in creating the governance framework that will give us the commonplace to discuss these moments in the future when we will be at all as to what AI can do. And at that moment, we’ll also require action. And again, we have to be prepared for that moment when action is needed. So until then, we have to keep on investing, albeit the competition environment in which we’ll find ourselves, but we’ll have to keep on investing in cooperation.
Saksham Sharda: So speaking of action and cooperation, your own experience spans from legal roles to leadership positions in the European Parliament and the European Commission. How has this diverse background influenced your approach to policy making, particularly in the areas of security, migration, and now digital technologies?
Dragoș Tudorache: Well, there is one thing I’ve learned throughout my experience which a lot was spent negotiating by the way in all shapes and, and sizes was that you always have to be open to learn from others. You have to make sure that you listen to everyone that has an input and a say and a contribution to make. There is no idea that cannot be a helpful one. Even if you don’t take it. It still can help in the choices that you make and that you bring in a discussion or in a negotiation or in a file. And that, again, ultimately it’s through give and take through compromise that you achieve something. If you start with the understanding that you’re going to impose your view upon everyone else’s and consider that a success, it’s a wrong assumption to have. Even if somehow by miracle you manage to impose your view entirely, that means that there is something wrong in that product. And ultimately it’s not going to hold as I always say, in a negotiation or in a framework like this one, when you prepare a political product of this nature, everyone has to leave the room equally happy and equally unhappy. That is when you know you’ve had a good negotiation.
Saksham Sharda: And so, besides compromise, is there any other strategy that you employ to foster collaboration and consensus building?
Dragoș Tudorache: Oh, there are many tactics, let’s say, in strategies that you use to arrive at a complete product. I don’t think it would necessarily be a good use of anyone’s time to go through them. But again, there’s an array of different strategies that you have to use if you want to get in a complex environment such as this one politically, institutionally, to get to an end result, particularly in a file as important and as complex as this one.
Saksham Sharda: So you’ve also been vocal about the importance of countering disinformation and promoting media literacy especially during elections. How do you propose tackling the spread of fake news while safeguarding freedom of expression and independent journalism? Journalism
Dragoș Tudorache: By instilling a bit more responsibility into the platforms that are the conduit for this information these days? The responsibility itself, or the fact of lying or the fact of spreading fake news by physical persons, by individuals, is something that is as old as mankind. There were always people who tried to manipulate others using whatever tools we were available at the moment at that moment in history. What is specific today and what makes this phenomenon much more destructive to the cohesion of society? And we see the results today in most of our democracies, is the fact that you have now social media that you have now the digital part of our lives, which allows for this to spread, to accelerate, to amplify at a scale that is unprecedented from any other moments in our history. So this is what is specific about disinformation today. Not all of a sudden we woke up and we discovered that we are surrounded by fake news and people who have an interest to use information to manipulate or to distort reality for their own political or any other type of benefit. So therefore, the solution is because you can’t change human nature. There’ll always be those tempted to tell a lie to convince others. And there will always be weaknesses inside our communities and us as human beings to accept or to believe or to replicate what we hear, to try and convince others ourselves. But then again, if you want to put a dent in this, if you want to somewhat change the current dynamic, you need to look at the conduit. And the conduit is where there needs to be a responsibility introduced in the equation. Just as 50, 60, 70 years ago when radio and television became part of society and were used as the conduits for putting information out there, and also at the time we asked ourselves the question, can we allow a journalist, a radio host, TV host or a TV station to say whatever they want unchecked without a al responsibility for the content that they display on the screen or put on the air? Similarly, right now, at least that’s what we believe in the European Union, and that’s why you have the DSA similarly, right now, we say platforms cannot call themselves indifferent to what happens in their, on their technical environment, let’s say. They cannot just be an ultra conduit of that disinformation. There has to be a responsibility for that content. That’s the fundamental logic of the DSA. I know that in the US, the perspective is somewhat different. I don’t think that this logic that I mentioned earlier contradicts in any way freedom of expression or the first Amendment in, in the US Constitution. I believe actually the two can work rather well side by side, just as they worked again, rather well side by side at the time when radio to television were doing what social media is doing today. So that’s where I think we need to work. And then of course, most importantly, this is something that has also existed since technology started to be used to amplify messages which is that we need to increase the resilience of societies, the capacity of societies is to distinguish between fact and non facts between truth and lie. And that means education. That means critical thinking because ultimately it’s the best way, it’s the best tool you can have. When you manage to instill in the minds of every user the reflex of checking, of asking themselves, is it true or not? Do I want to make sure that I get my facts straight by also verifying somewhere else? I don’t necessarily believe anything that I see or hear combination can, can deliver us from the current.
Saksham Sharda: But are there any specific initiatives or legislative proposals that you are championing to address these challenges posed by disinformation campaigns?
Dragoș Tudorache: Well, for me, it has been one of the main drivers for the past mandate. And this is why I have jumped on, on let’s say the AI wagon from day one. Just as I would have jumped on the DSA wagon as well. Because for me, the two are in fact the most important tools in that respect. The combination of the Digital Services Act and the AI Act are the tools that I think can deliver that health check of our information space to the point where we can have a reversal of the current trends of this information. So I would very much put my money on these two. Of course, the crucial thing now is how they’re going to be implemented with the DSA. We have started already the first the first letters, the first demands from the European Commission, as the enforcer have been sent to the big platforms out there, there remains to be seen how they understand that they need to address the structural risks in the way those platforms work, in the way they amplify messages, so on and so forth. And the same thing is going when, when the AI act is going to kick in, which is still to come, there’s a calendar that there is, there’s an intermediary period from the moment that the act was adopted to the moment when it’s going to become enforceable. And then we are going to have the combination of the two sets of norms, which can really, again, instill responsibility in space. But implementation is never easy. It takes a lot of tact, patient know-how, and an open mind on the side of the regulators, just as it also takes a change of mindset for those that are the subjects of the law who need to understand that they now have a societal role, which cannot be denied.
Saksham Sharda: So, being on this AI bandwagon, how do you see digital innovations shaping the future of marketing strategies, for instance, especially in the context of data privacy and consumer detection?
Dragoș Tudorache: Well, it’s not only going to change that, it’s not only going to change marketing strategy for me this is in fact the, we’ve been in some sort of a digital revolution for the last 20 years. But for me, this is the pinnacle of that revolution with ai. AI is in fact that technology that kind of caps it all because it’s so transversal, because it’s so so much present that is going to be even more so in the next few years in everything. It’s an enabling technology for all sectors of the economy. But at the same time, it’s disruptive for the way society works, for the way societies interact with the state, and also for how states themselves are going to function. So again, for me, it’s not only how it changes marketing strategies is how it changes everything around us. And I’m not necessarily saying it to alarm everyone. I’m not an alarmist when it comes to the impact of AI. I’m just saying it because I think we need to be soberly aware and to take the steps to prepare for that moment, again, calmly. It’s important that we understand that we are the ones that can control the direction of travel for how this technology is impacting our lives. We have to remain the ones controlling the direction of travel. That’s why I believed from day one that rules are important. And it was time to bring in a governance framework around AI and the AI Act is exactly that. It’s a model of governance for AI. And I think it is what we need to responsibly do also in the future. And the advice I would give to all of the jurisdictions to make sure that they put themselves in firm control for their own sake as rule makers, as policy makers and the sake of societies.
Saksham Sharda: So you don’t want to say that it’s gonna lead to massive job losses, for instance?
Dragoș Tudorache: No, because I don’t think it’s going to lead to massive job losses. Yes, it’s going to. It would be foolish to say that it’s not going to render some jobs as we know them today. Irrelevant. Absolutely. And I think for the first time in history, unlike many of the other industrial revolutions in the past, for the first time in history is going to affect more, let’s say the white color type of jobs than the blue color type of jobs. Because AI is not going to cut anyone’s hair, nor is it going to fix anyone’s car. So a lot of the manual labor as we know it won’t be changed other than by maybe adding some extra layer of automation and and, and assistance. But there will always be a role for the human in anything that implies manual input when it comes to intellectual inputs and jobs that are exclusively based on intellectual input. That is where the question is. And again, some of these jobs will perhaps even disappear altogether, and that happened again with every other industrial revolution in the past. But they’re going to be replaced by new categories of jobs that we cannot think of today. We already have prompt engineers, five, six years ago, this job didn’t exist. Now it does, and they are probably going to become what the code writers used to be five years ago. The code writers used to be the most expensive resource in the digital bubble right now. I think those that would have the savviness of prompting AI in the right way to give you the kind of results that you need are going to be the wizards of today and tomorrow. And then again, there’ll be something else that is going to come and replace that. There will be a constant cycle of that, which means that, again, it’s not about job losses, as it’s going to be a matter of job transformation and also job fluidity. I think there’ll be much more fluidity in this space than we knew before, that stability that was part of our economy and our labor market back in the days when you do the same thing for 20 years, I think that to a large extent, is going to be gone because the AI and its intact is going to be fluid constantly shaping, reshaping, leaping forward, which means that also the job market and the labor environment as such is going to have to remain quite agile. So it’s all going to boil down on the ability that societies will have, first of all, to educate kids, students in the right way to rethink the way competencies are going, are being passed on, what kind of competencies are relevant in this kind of future. And then most importantly, to re-skill, the current job force to be able to handle this sort of fluidity, this sort of agility that is going to be required in the years to come. Again, a librarian is still doing the work of a librarian today, two years from now, a librarian will have to do, it’s her job or his job completely different because AI is going to do 80 to 90% of what he or she does right now. Same thing for lawyers, same thing for air traffic controllers. Same thing for many of the other jobs, which right now are again, very firmly anchored into the way we look at the labor market, but are going to be changed. And again, we need to prepare our labor phosphore.
Saksham Sharda: And so is the EU planning to do something about reskilling programs, or is the AI act at all? What, what were these discussions that happened during the AI Act negotiations?
Dragoș Tudorache: Well we, we could not do much on this in the act because education and labor are not among the competencies that are enshrined in the treaty at EU level. They’re still national competencies. So the one thing you could do at EU level, and I’m hoping that we going to see that in this new political cycle that is coming, is to give somewhat the political direction some, let’s say, loose guidance as to what needs to be done, both in terms of education and rescuing programs and AI talent, let’s say. But not only AI talent, talent that is necessary to survive in an AI driven world. So it’s two kinds of discussions. First talent for AI, but also talent to survive in an AI world. But all of these things ultimately are going to be for the member states to do nationally. I would say personally, unfortunately, I would like to see, and I’m not the only one, a lot of EU citizens when asked what competencies they would like to be seen elevated from the national level to the EU level. They constantly say education, labor, health because they consider that the EU can bring much more effective action than isolated at member states level. I’m one of those who believe that firmly, but again, we are not there yet. We don’t have yet the treaty that would allow for the EU to intervene and bring in hard instruments in coordinating neither education nor labor markets. So again, it’s still going to be individual action by, by member state governments alone with some, some loose guidance at EU level and possibly some funding programs that would be stimulating that kind of thinking and action at national level. I think that even with this let’s say set of minimum tools, I think the EU should act because I won’t repeat what I said. This is going to be fundamental if we are going to have a successful transition towards an AI powered world so that member states understand the need to invest significantly into such programs.
Saksham Sharda: And so what advice would you have for job seekers looking to get into legislation trying to help with their legislation? What advice would you have for people looking to get into your industry?
Dragoș Tudorache: Well, if anyone is looking to get into the AI industry itself then again, clearly investing in the skills necessary for that is, is, is crucial for anyone else looking at the future and wondering do I fit in that? Am I, am I sufficiently prepared? Regardless of what you wanna do with your life or, or regardless of the job that one has in mind? I think the issue is to remain open to what is going to happen to understand that the job as one might project it today, is not necessarily going to look the same one or two years from now. Whether you’re in a university right now, already planning your future job, be prepared by the time you graduate most likely the job that you have in mind might look very different than today because of the impact of ai. But again, not to look at this, as an evil something that should, should scare anyone. It’s just a new reality. Something that actually is, is fascinating. It can also, and it’ll also bring huge benefits. And we just have to again, be prepared for it, be as inquisitive as possible, even demand whether you are already working doesn’t matter in which sector to actually start actively even asking for your employer to be starting to think about how skills in your company or your little business or bigger business need to be adapted for what AI is going to bring to that specific business model.
Saksham Sharda: So the last question for you is of a personal kind. What would you be doing in your life, if not this?
Dragoș Tudorache: Oh, a lot of other things. I’ve changed tech quite often in my life, not only in terms of substance but also in terms of setting institutions that are always working in the public sector. I always wondered what it would be like to go to the private sector. I’ve been tempted several times including now, but eventually the public sector still remains dearest to my heart because it gives me a sense of purpose that somehow I feel I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t get in the private sector, no offense to the private sector. I admire what they do. So I’ll still be somewhere trying to serve a public interest. And but the one thing that is a red thread throughout my professional life has been at the moment, I no longer learn something new. I get bored and I look for something else.
Let’s Conclude!
Saksham Sharda: Thanks, everyone for joining us for this month’s episode of Outgrow’s Marketer of the Month. That was Dragoș Tudorache who is the Member of European Parliament.
Dragoș Tudorache: Pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Saksham Sharda: Check out the website for more details and we’ll see you once again next month with another marketer of the month.
Muskan is a Marketing Analyst at Outgrow. She is working on multiple areas of marketing. On her days off though, she loves exploring new cafes, drinking coffee, and catching up with friends.