Language note: This episode was recorded in Spanish. Quotes appear below in English translation followed by the original Spanish (lightly corrected for standard spelling and grammar where my live Spanish wandered, otherwise verbatim). Translations are by me.
About this episode
UPM's in-house podcast had me on to talk about the HARNESS project, European Data Spaces, and why almost nobody works on AI governance compared to how many people are chasing foundation models. I came in ready to talk with the lovely Ana Arribas about the maths behind LLMs ... and ended up showering praise on my beloved city of Madrid, and then making a case for why regulation isn't the problem, the gap between what companies say they comply with and what they actually let you see is the problem. Habitantes tamquam inter duos lucos, sic inter duos mundos ...
▶
Click to play. Episode in Spanish.
Selected Quotes
On compliance theatre
"They love making these compliance reports, to show whether they comply with the law. What they don't love is actually complying. For example, they always produce the reports as PDFs. You will never see a report in Excel, because they don't want you to see it as it really is."
A ellos les gusta mucho hacer estos informes de compliance, de cumplimiento, para ver si cumplen con estas leyes. Pero lo que no les gusta es cumplir de verdad. Por ejemplo, siempre hacen los informes en PDF. Usted nunca va a ver un informe en Excel, porque no quieren que usted lo vea tal como es.
On why the technology that complies with the law doesn't exist
"The other part is technology that actually complies with the law. That doesn't exist, because it's obvious they don't want it to exist — because if it existed, they wouldn't be making as much money as they're making now."
La otra parte es la tecnología que cumple con las leyes. Eso no existe, porque es obvio que no quieren que exista — porque si existiera, no ganarían tanto dinero como el que están ganando ahora.
On surveillance hidden in plain sight
"Every time you use Google Maps, every time you pay with a card... they already know where you are ..."
Cada vez que usted usa Google Maps, cada vez que paga con una tarjeta... ya saben dónde está usted ...
On Spain and its dictatorship history
"One very good thing about Spain... is the cultural and political atmosphere, because, due to its own history, people are still a bit more aware that the State can also take your rights away. So people know what can happen if we don't protect our rights."
Una cosa muy buena de España... es el ambiente cultural y el ambiente político, porque, por su propia historia, la gente todavía es un poco más consciente de que el Estado también puede quitarte tus derechos. Entonces la gente sabe lo que puede pasar si no protegemos nuestros derechos.
On advice for engineers
"I'd say: learn to read something beyond engineering... In five, six years, the engineers who succeed won't be the ones who write the best code. We are the ones building the AIs. And the first people the AIs are going to take jobs from are us."
Yo diría que aprenda a leer algo más que ingeniería... En cinco, en seis años, los ingenieros que van a tener éxito no van a ser los que programen mejor. Nosotros mismos estamos desarrollando las IAs. Y las primeras personas a quienes las IAs les van a quitar el trabajo somos nosotros.
Related work
- Rethinking China's Approach to Privacy — DCU Law and Tech Research Cluster Podcast, June 2024, the closest prior conversation on comparative data governance.
- La UE quiere que la IA escanee nuestros mensajes privados — The Conversation España, April 2026, on Chat Control and the same underlying argument about compliance theatre, applied to CSAM detection.
Episode Details
- Date: 2026
- Venue: SomosUPM
- Topic: HARNESS Network, European Data Spaces, AI governance
- Language: Spanish
About the researcher
Meem Arafat Manab is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Fellow at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, researching European Data Spaces as part of the HARNESS Network.
Full Profile