Right Livelihood Award Ceremony – December 2, 2025, Stockholm

Audrey Tang—Taiwan’s trailblazing former Digital Minister and a global pioneer of participatory digital governance—has been named a 2025 Right Livelihood Laureate, honored for her visionary work in using technology to strengthen democracy rather than erode it. 

On December 1, 2025, Audrey will speak at Stockholm University on one of the defining challenges of our time: how AI can move from undermining democracy to empowering it.

The award recognizes not only Audrey’s achievements in Taiwan but also her global influence. As Eva Hansson, vice director of the Stockholm Center for Global Asia, notes, Audrey represents a radically hopeful vision: one in which AI enhances transparency, participation and democratic accountability at a moment when democratic norms are under strain worldwide.

In recent years, AI and algorithmic systems have been widely criticized for exacerbating polarization, accelerating autocratization, and shaping information flows in ways that disempower citizens. These systems have the ability to reward outrage, amplify conflict, and give disproportionate influence to those who manipulate engagement-based platforms. Hansson stresses that this makes AI not merely a technical subject, but a profoundly democratic one: “It is about how we avoid technology contributing to the erosion of democracy and instead design systems that promote pluralism and accountability.”

Audrey’s work directly addresses this dilemma. She is internationally known for championing participatory digital platforms, including Taiwan’s groundbreaking use of Polis to find consensus across diverse communities. Her approach flips conventional algorithmic logic on its head—designing systems that optimize for shared understanding rather than division.

As Audrey explains, “When we design systems that optimize consensus rather than engagement-based outrage, we unlock the true civic potential of our digital infrastructure.” Audrey argues that AI, when used responsibly, becomes a force for good—helping citizens engage more meaningfully with governance and helping democracies become more resilient.

During Audrey’s Stockholm lecture, practical lessons from Taiwan’s digital democracy efforts will be shared, as well as insights into citizen participation at scale, and how these models can apply beyond Taiwan’s borders. Hansson hopes to hear Audrey address the tensions between ideals of transparency and the realities of political and technical constraints—one of the central challenges of modern governance.

A follow-up panel discussion will bridge Audrey’s hands-on work with academic research on democracy, constitutional law, and technological power. At its heart lies Audrey’s call to shift from “the human in the loop of AI” to “the AI in the loop of humanity.” In Audrey’s words: “It is vital that people get off the AI hamster wheel and take control of the AI steering wheel. In this way, AI can strengthen democratic institutions, transforming the magma-like power of social conflict into geothermal energy for co-creation.”

The event, open in person at Aula Magna or online, is hosted by the Stockholm Center for Global Asia, a hub for research on democracy, human rights, international politics, and the intertwined futures of Europe and Asia.

Bottom line: 

Audrey’s Right Livelihood Award underscores a powerful truth: AI’s future is inseparable from democracy’s future—and leaders like Audrey Tang are showing the world how both can be strengthened together.

Full Acceptance Speech: 

Four million years. Plate against plate.
Taiwan: forever rising, forever starward.

Freedom and democracy did not fall from the sky.
They were forged under intense pressure —
cultivated by the blood, sweat and tears of those who came before us.

Polarization has long been considered a fire to be extinguished.
But in Taiwan, we learned a new way.

We learned that as the youngest tectonic island in the world,
crashing plates
give rise to a majestic verdancy.

We built a geothermal democracy —
one that transforms the negative heat of disagreement
into positive energy for renewal.

This is the challenge for all democracies faced with backsliding:
not to silence
but to channel conflict.

AI must not divide us with outrage.
It must connect us through uncommon ground.

We, the people, are the superintelligence.

To be Taiwan’s first Right Livelihood Laureate
is not my honor alone — it is ours.

To everyone who etched their mark on digital freedom,
to everyone waging peace around the globe:
Thank you.

婆娑之洋，美麗之島。
公民之國，萬華之中。

Swirling ocean. Beautiful islands.
A transcultural republic of citizens.

Let’s free the future — together.

To view all of Audrey’s interviews and speeches, please visit the SayIt Archive