Her TED Talk, "Why Are You Watching Me If I'm A Nobody," exceeds 4 million views. Wielding cautionary tales about contemporary data collection that make the Stasi seem quaint, Peirano explains how the data that our phones and algorithms automatically collect about us is ripe for misuse and exploitation by the next authoritarian regime.
Marta Peirano is a writer and researcher specializing in the intersections of technology, power, and democracy. Her work rigorously examines digital infrastructures, surveillance capitalism, and the narratives that underpin the contemporary technological imaginary, positioning her as one of the most influential voices in the critical analysis of technological power in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
Marta Peirano is a columnist for El País and a contributor to Radio Nacional de España, where she offers complex analyses of artificial intelligence, data geopolitics, and democratic crises, presenting them in accessible, precise, and high-impact ways.
Her TED Talk, “Why Do They Watch Me If I am Nobody”, has garnered millions of views and has become a key resource for understanding how the surveillance economy operates on ordinary citizens. The talk solidified her international profile as a communicator capable of transforming a structural problem into an urgent and understandable conversation for mass audiences.
Marta Peirano has served as technology curator for the Barcelona Biennial of Thought and created (re)programming – Strategies for Self-Renewal, a program at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Ljubljana that brought together international experts to rethink artificial intelligence and climate change.
She also spearheaded Deep Journalism at Medialab-Matadero, a seminar dedicated to exploring new forms of investigative journalism and narrative in the age of AI and disinformation.
Her first book, “The Rival of Prometheus” (2011), was a pioneering essay on automatons, thinking machines, and artificial intelligence. This was followed by “The Little Red Book of the Online Activist” (2015), a cryptography manual for journalists with a foreword by Edward Snowden; “The Enemy Knows the System” (2019), an instant bestseller on surveillance capitalism; “Against the Future” (2022), an incisive critique of technological promises in the face of the climate crisis; and “(re)programming” (2022), a volume of conversations about AI and political alternatives to collapse.
On stage, Marta Peirano combines in-depth research, narrative clarity, and a direct and persuasive presentation style. His lectures offer strategic context, critical thinking, and concrete tools for understanding power structures in the digital age.
