Digital Humanism TU Wien announces the next events.

We are pleased to announce our new event series: Polis Digitalis – Ensuring a Democratic Digital Space

The world is at a critical turning point as the extremely rapid development digitalization spearheaded by AI constitutes a technological and associated societal and economic transformation which affects and is affected by a (geo)political upheaval – with great potential benefits, but also equally great dangers.

The goal of this series is to bring together policy makers, journalists and academics to discuss the most recent actual or foreseen developments of policy decisions for the digital sphere, reflect on their impact, raise awareness in civil society at large and, when deemed suitable, formulate our own proposals in the spirit of Digital Humanism.

This monthly event offering discussions with worldwide digital policy makers will typically be held on our usual Tuesday time spot. 
We are cordially inivite you to our first event:

Tuesday, February 10, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. (17:00) Central European Time (UTC+1)

“Will the EU Stand Strong?”

Speaker: Brando Benifei (Italian politician, Member of the European Parliament)
Interviewed by and in discussion with: Jannis Brühl (Head of the digital and finance team at Süddeutsche Zeitung.)

The Polis Digitalis Series starts with an interview of influential MEP Brando Benefei by distinguished journalist Janis Brühl.

>From the attempts by the Trump administration and the Big Tech oligarchs to cancel or weaken EU digital regulation to the Greenland developments and the publication of the new US security strategy, we are witnessing concerted attacks which constitute a real and present existential danger for the EU.

Will the EU stand strong and united in this “moment of truth” or will it backslide towards a loose gathering of weak states where Big Tech can purvey their platforms and AI applications with no rules or guardrails and with total impunity ?

This is about dignity and independence versus digital, and not only, vassalage.

Brando Benifei is an active and influential member of the European Parliament and, most pertinently for today’s event, after having served as a co-rapporteur of the AI Act is now the chair of the EP delegation for relations with the United States. Janis Brühl is one of Germany’s leading journalists and heads the digital and finance team at Süddeutsche Zeitung.



(scroll down for abstract and CV) 


Reminder of our next Digital Humanism Lectures:
24.02.26 Sayeed Choudhury: “The Imperative of Openness in AI””
10.03.26 Stefan Szeider on “LLMs when left alone”
public calendar in iCal format to stay updated: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/dighumtuwien%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics

In case you missed the last lecture by Dario Guarascio you can watch the recording of “The Military-Digital Complex: Digital Technologies and the New World (dis)Order”.


We are looking forward to seeing you!

Stefan Woltran


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“Will the EU Stand Strong?”:

>From the attempts by the Trump administration and the Big Tech oligarchs to cancel or weaken EU digital regulation to the Greenland developments and the publication of the new US security strategy, we are witnessing concerted attacks which constitute a real and present existential danger for the EU. Will the EU stand strong and united in this “moment of truth” or will it backslide towards a loose gathering of weak states where Big Tech can purvey their platforms and AI applications with no rules or guardrails and with total impunity ? This is about dignity and independence versus digital, and not only, vassalage.

Short Bio of Brando Benifei:

Brando Benifei is an Italian MEP serving his third term in the European parliament. During the previous mandate he was co-Rapporteur for the Artificial Intelligence Act and thanks to this work in March 2024 he won the prize for the Best MEP of the Mandate assigned by The Parliament Magazine.

Now he is Coordinator in the Committee on International Trade for the Socialists and Democrats Group and Chair of the European Parliament’s D-US delegation. He is member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and he works also as substitute member on the EU internal market and consumer protection and on legal affairs, always following closely digital issues

Short Bio of Janis Brühl:

Jannis Brühl, born in Nuremberg, is one of Germany’s leading digital journalists and heads the digital and finance team at Süddeutsche Zeitung. He studied politics and American studies in Erlangen and Portland, Oregon. In New York City, he was an Arthur F. Burns Fellow in the editorial department of the investigative platform ProPublica. He works as a presenter and speaker and has been reporting for the SZ on big tech for more than ten years, focusing on disruptions from Silicon Valley and their impact on German society. His book Disruption Die Ideologie der Tech-Oligarchen und das Ende der Demokratie, wie wir sie kennen was published in January 2026.