Seminar: "Intellectual Monopolies" in the AI Age (Understanding Control Beyond Ownership)

​This seminar will feature a presentation by Dr. Cecilia Rikap, Argentine academic, currently Associate Professor in Economics and the Head of Research at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at the University College London (UCL).

​Cecilia will share her work on "Dynamics of Corporate Governance Beyond Ownership in AI." Cecilia studies the rising concentration of intangible assets focusing on the emergence of intellectual monopolies, among others from tech and pharma industries, the distribution of intellectual (including data) rents, resulting geopolitical tensions and the effects of intellectual monopoly capitalism on the knowledge commons and development. Her research also deals with understanding intellectual monopolies as corporate planners replacing state functions.

​She authored the award-winning book Capitalism, Power and Innovation: Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism Uncovered (Routledge, 2021) and co-authored The Digital Innovation Race (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). Her forthcoming book, The Rulers: Corporate Power in the Age of AI and the Cloud will come out with Verso in 2026.

​More about Metagov Seminar: The Metagov Seminar invites individuals working in online governance to present their work to a community of other researchers and practitioners. Seminar topics include, but are not limited to, computational tools for governance, governance incidents and case studies from online communities, topics in cryptoeconomics, and the design of digital constitutions.

​​​The seminar is intended for researchers and practitioners in online governance, broadly defined. We welcome guests and curious members of the public. Note that the discussion is moderated.