ADAPT Radio

Democratic stability faces an unprecedented challenge from hyper-accelerated digital disruption and algorithmic manipulation. We examine the strategic intersection of technology, law, and human rights as the Council of the European Union presidency transitions to Ireland. This discussion defines the research agenda for the new Trinity Centre for Digital Security and Societal Resilience. Our guests include Olivia Waters, Head of Impact and Growth Strategy at the Adapt Centre, along with key voices from the National Cyber Security Centre, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, and academic leadership from Yale and Trinity College Dublin. THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT Transitioning the European Union presidency agenda Defining societal resilience beyond technological solutions Algorithmic risks to individual democratic agency Enforcement of existing digital rights legislation Multidisciplinary approaches to national cybersecurity threats GUEST DETAILS Olivia Waters is the Head of Impact and Growth Strategy at the Adapt Centre. She leads institutional initiatives that bridge academic research with public policy. Her expertise includes strategic growth, innovation frameworks, and managing complex stakeholder relationships across the European research ecosystem. Connect with Olivia: Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/watersolivia MORE INFORMATION You can learn more about the Sea-Scan project and other cutting-edge research at Trinity College Dublin's ADAPT Centre here: www.adaptcentre.ie/ Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the ADAPT Centre For more information about ADAPT's groundbreaking AI and data analytics research visit www.adaptcentre.ie/

As Ireland prepares for its 2026 Presidency of the Council of the European Union, a critical challenge looms. The technology landscape is shifting dramatically, with foundational AI models concentrating immense power and influence into the hands of a few major players. This dependence introduces massive risks, including uncontrollable costs and a profound lack of national agency over essential digital infrastructure. This is the central problem facing Europe’s digital future. The solution may lie in building AI systems that are open, trustworthy, and sovereign. This episode explores how embracing open source—a development model and licensing approach—is the key to ensuring resilience, adaptability, and the freedom to affect change. It is a pathway to controlling one’s own digital destiny. To discuss this vital issue, we are joined by Clare Dillon, a founder of Open Ireland Network and PhD researcher, and Sarah Novotny, an esteemed open source champion who has led projects such as Kubernetes and OpenTelemetry. THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT Sovereignty means avoiding external control AI amplifies power through data Open source provides agency and freedom Funding software maintenance is essential Collaboration builds future technology GUEST DETAILS Clare Dillon is a founder of Open Ireland Network and is currently a PhD researcher in University of Galway with the Lyro Research Centre. Her work focuses on researching open collaborative software development practices and the idea of trustworthiness through code transparency. Sarah Novotny is a leading open source champion, actively involved in significant projects including Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, NGINX, and MySQL. She is also studying for a Master's in Applied Social Data Science in Trinity College, Dublin.

In an age where critical infrastructure, democratic processes and public services all depend on digital technology, the stakes for getting cybersecurity right have never been higher. A ransomware attack can shut down a country’s health service overnight, and AI now makes it possible to fabricate passports, clone voices and impersonate anyone convincingly. The question is no longer whether something will go wrong - it is how we build the foundations to bounce back when it does. Professor Hitesh Tewari and Dr Maria Grazia Porcedda join Dr. Claire O’Connell to discuss the newly launched Trinity Centre for Digital Security and Societal Resilience at Trinity College Dublin. They explore what separates digital security from societal resilience, how zero-knowledge proofs could reshape how we prove our identity online, and why cybersecurity is too important to be left to computer scientists alone. They also share their personal journeys into the field, from blockchain research to EU law, and lay out their ambitions for turning the centre into a nationally funded, cross-Ireland research hub. THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT What digital security and societal resilience actually mean, and why we need both The 2021 HSE ransomware attack as a wake-up call for Ireland How AI is enabling identity fraud, deepfakes and document forgery Zero-knowledge proofs: proving who you are without revealing your data Protecting Ireland’s undersea cables and critical digital infrastructure The newly launched Trinity Centre for Digital Security and Societal Resilience Top tips for everyday digital security — and why individual responsibility only goes so far GUEST DETAILS Prof. Hitesh Tewari leads the Applied Cryptography Research Lab at Trinity College Dublin, where his research spans Security, Applied Cryptography, Privacy, and Decentralisation. He co-authored Electronic Payment Systems, and has since focused on the broader application of Blockchain technology across areas including public health and personal privacy. A member of the Ripple UBRI professorial network, his lab most recently released zkBallot in 2025 — a privacy-preserving electronic voting platform delivering both voter anonymity and public auditability. Maria Grazia Porcedda is Assistant Professor of IT Law at Trinity College Dublin, specialising in privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, and cybercrime at the intersection of law and technology. She is the author of Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Protection in EU Law (Hart Publishing) and has advised the EU Directorate General for Development and Cooperation on cyber capacity building. Her policy-oriented, interdisciplinary scholarship is supported by several research awards, and she holds a PhD in Law from the European University Institute, where her thesis examined cybersecurity and privacy rights in EU law. Connect with the Guests: Prof. Hitesh Tewari Website: https://www.tcd.ie/research/profiles/?profile=htewari Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiteshtewari/ Maria Grazia Porcedda Website: https://www.tcd.ie/research/profiles/?profile=mariagrp Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariagraziaporcedda/

Trustworthy information faces crisis as overwhelming content volume pushes people toward single trusted voices yet statistical language models trained on internet data produce plausible but sometimes incorrect answers lacking true intelligence or understanding. Professor Jennifer Edmond, Director Digital Humanities Trinity College Dublin leading KT 4D project examining AI, big data and democracy through humanities lens, alongside Éamonn Kennedy, Chief Innovation Officer News Corp developing verification systems at Storyful, explain why we're paradoxically returning to village information model after era of unlimited access created processing paralysis, how critical digital literacy requires people feeling agency toward information rather than passive ballroom dancing partners pushed by technology, why Digital Democracy Lab deliberately builds friction into platforms forcing users to question profiling, training data and system metabolism, and how three actors of technology developers, policy makers and citizens must collaborate rather than pushing responsibility between poles. GUEST DETAILS Professor Jennifer Edmond is Professor in Digital Humanities and Culture at Trinity College Dublin serving as Director of Postgraduate Programme in Digital Humanities and Culture and Co-Director of Trinity Centre for Digital Humanities. As TCD Principal Investigator for KT 4D project examining intersection between AI, big data and democracy through humanities lens, she leads research distinguishing between three actors of technology developers, policy makers and citizens exploring how to educate, regulate and innovate better. Éamonn Kennedy is Chief Innovation Officer at News Corp focusing on driving innovative user centric technology by building agile cross disciplinary teams. Leading R&D team at Storyful creating systems helping journalists and analysts understand and interpret vast amount of public content and data shared as societies move online, his work centres on journalism's core principles of transparency, provenance and trusted community voices. Before joining Storyful, he was founder and product lead for number of web-based startups winning industry innovation awards including Web Summit Spark of Genius. Connect with the Guests: Jennifer Edmond LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferedmond/ Trinity Centre for Digital Humanities, Trinity College Dublin KT 4D Project Storyful News Corp ADAPT Centre: www.adaptcentre.ie MORE INFORMATION You can learn more about the Sea-Scan project and other cutting-edge research at Trinity College Dublin's ADAPT Centre here: www.adaptcentre.ie/ Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the ADAPT Centre For more information about ADAPT's groundbreaking AI and data analytics research visit www.adaptcentre.ie/