Tactical Tech

In The Loop October 2026

9 minutes read | First published: October 20, 2026
People sitting at a desk with computers

🌍🔍✨What On Earth..? Big Tech, AI and the Politics of the Planet's Future

How did technology come to occupy the symbolic space of nature? What happens when data centres, energy grids, mines, cables and algorithms become part of the infrastructure of our planet? And who gets to decide what kind of future these technologies create?
Tactical Tech is launching What On Earth..?, a new event series produced in collaboration with Spore Initiative and Adrienne Russell, Professor of Communications at the University of Washington. The series explores the growing entanglement of Big Tech and AI with the climate and environmental crisis, asking how we got here, what comes next, and where resistance is already emerging.
Each theme is explored through two linked events and an accompanying essay, bringing together evidence, insights and people to develop critical foresight. Save the dates for the first two events:
  • Technology as Nature 📅 29 October 2026, 19:00-21:00
  • Everything's Broken, Now What? 📅 27 November 2026, 19:00-21:00
Read more.

🌱 Technology as Nature

The series opens at Spore Initiative with "Technology as Nature", a panel discussion on what happens when technology comes to occupy the symbolic space of the natural world, while nature itself is increasingly treated as infrastructure to be measured, modeled and managed.
The conversation takes place at a charged moment: concern is growing about the concentration of power in the hands of a small technological elite, companies are pushing AI with increasing force, and environmental narratives are shifting from climate and nature towards energy security.
The panel will trace where these stories come from, examine what they obscure, and consider how they shape the technologies we build and the environmental futures we imagine.
Speakers: José-Carlos Mariátegui, writer, curator and founder of Alta Tecnología Andina; Noortje Marres, Professor of Science, Technology and Society at the University of Warwick; Annette Zimmermann, political philosopher and Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Hosts: Stephanie Hankey and Marek Tuszynski, co-founders of Tactical Tech.
Save the date and join us!
  • 📅 29 October 2026, 19:00-21:00
  • 📍 Spore Initiative, Hermannstraße 86, 12051 Berlin
  • 💰 Free | In English
Read more.

⚒️ Everything's Broken, Now What?

The second event moves from diagnosis to response. If Technology as Nature traces how we arrived at the present moment, "Everything's Broken, Now What?" asks what follows: where resistance to the current trajectory of Big Tech and AI is emerging, and what would be needed to redesign the forces that shape our technologies and our environmental futures.
Rather than accepting the expansion of digital infrastructure as a given, the session starts from a different premise. Societies can question the direction they have been handed, and the options for changing course become clearer once the stories that made it seem inevitable have been examined.
Speakers and further details will be announced.
Save the date and join us!
  • 📅 27 November 2026, 19:00-21:00
  • 📍 Spore Initiative, Hermannstraße 86, 12051 Berlin
  • 💰 Free | In English

Tech, media, & investigative journalism 🔍

🔬 "Exposing The Invisible" residency in Berlin

At Tactical Tech, we believe the most meaningful learning happens between people, through shared stories, shared spaces, in encounters that matter. This principle was the rationale behind this year's edition of the "Exposing the Invisible" Investigation Residency.
The event brought together 36 investigators, journalists, fact-checkers, and OSINT practitioners from across Europe for a three-day residency in Berlin as part of the Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI).
The "Exposing The Invisible" Investigation Residency focused on three topics: AI and Us, Growing Up with Tech, and Mapping the Depths of the Ocean. Across three days, 10 speakers led 11 panels alongside 16 skill-sharing sessions hosted by participants themselves, covering everything from ocean investigations and geospatial data to digital security, corporate research and deconstructed AI narratives.
The residency also sparked a new ocean investigations track, with participants agreeing to stay connected and develop future investigations together.
"It pushes you to think differently, broadens your perspective, and places your own work in a completely different context."
📽️ Still available to watch: our online mastercourse on Climate and Political Influence in the Age of Information Crises, exploring how media, journalists, investigators, and NGOs can navigate and expose how climate and political influence shapes our decisions and actions.
Stay tuned for future events.

🌱📱Digital technologies and Climate Action

📋 NEW RESOURCE: Countering Climate Disinformation: A Primer for EU Policymakers

New guidance for EU policymakers on countering climate disinformation, distilling practical approaches to understanding, anticipating, and responding to false narratives. The "Climate disinformation: what EU policymakers need to know and do" covers structural vulnerabilities that let misinformation take hold, strategic communication approaches including pre-bunking, and guidance on when and how to debunk and reframe a false claim.
Tactical Tech contributed The RePlaybook, our collaborative field guide built with 30 organisations and practitioners, packed with hands-on tactics to decode information disorder and counteract divided discourse. Read the primer here.

📗 Get your beautifully designed copy of The RePlaybook

Request your copy now. This essential guide, created by Tactical Tech with insights from 30 experts, offers practical tools to combat climate disinformation and strengthen communications. Ideal for NGOs, journalists, researchers, and policymakers. Request copies here.

TACTICAL TECH: TRAINING AND ADVANCING THE SKILLS OF COMMUNITIES WORLDWIDE 🧠

Dominika Knoblochová, Tactical Tech's The Toxic Triangle Project coordinator, walked policymakers and activists through The Toxic Triangle experience at the 2026 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference. Participants were presented with six real-world scenarios of encountering AI-generated content, in an immersive experience that provides unparalleled insight into what young people experience online. Check out what The Toxic Triangle is about here.

EVENTS THAT EMPOWER YOU 💡

🖥️ Online Conference 🧠 3rd Greenpeace-hosted digital transformation conference for non-profits | 📆 15 October 2026

🚨 How do you choose technology that serves people and the planet, when AI, expanding data centres, and Big Tech are reshaping everything around you? For nonprofits, this question hits differently. It's about how to choose tools that protect rights and reduce dependence on commercial providers who answer to shareholders, not missions.
To answer these questions, Tactical Tech and Greenpeace International organised the third digital transformation conference for non-profits, "Leveraging our collective power in times of democratic crisis, AI and misinformation."
The conference will take place on October 15th and will bring together people from civil society, academia and international development to discuss how we can collectively address these challenges.
The programme includes an interactive workshop that will inform a report on the use of technology in non-profit organisations, which will be sent to all participants.
For more information and to stay in the loop, check the event website here.

🎙️ Podcast: Shift Storm Podcast: AI and the Future of Work | 📆 21 October 2026

Don't miss the launch of Season 1 of Shift Storm, a new podcast investigating how the nature of work is changing in the age of AI. Our co-founder Marek Tuszynski was featured as one of the guests in an episode of the upcoming season. Register for the launch and follow the podcast.
📅 21 October, 18:30-21:00 | Register here.

📛 In-person conference 🔬 Who Owns Knowledge? Citizen Science, Data, and the Future of AI | 📆 4 November 2026

As part of Berlin Science Week 2026, the European Citizen Science Association and our friends from The Data Tank are hosting "Who Owns Knowledge? Citizen Science, Data, and the Future of AI": an interactive role-play workshop and fireside chat.
What to expect: you'll take on a role (citizen group and data centre group) and negotiate real-world scenarios around data stewardship, access, and credit. The exercise feeds into a fireside chat with speakers working on European data governance, followed by open networking and drinks. No background in data or policy required!
  • 📆 4 November | 16:45-19:00
  • 📍 Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115 Berlin
Register here.

📛 In-person conference 🗳️ Digital Democracy Day | 📅 5 November 2026

Our partners at Schwarzkopf Foundation's Zukunft D are hosting Digital Democracy Day, bringing together civil society, policymakers, and civic tech practitioners to ask how we stay capable of action in the face of pressure on democratic institutions.
The programme includes a keynote by Kübra Gümüşay, a parliamentary debate format with all participants, and workshops on funding, interoperability, digital rights, and AI. Tactical Tech will be running a session and bringing our Everywhere, All the Time exhibition. The event is in German and free to attend.
  • 📆 5 November | 11:00-21:00
  • 📍 Silent Green Kulturquartier, Berlin
  • Free admission
Register here.

🖥️ Online Conference 🔒 Privacy Camp 2026 | 13 October 2026

Our partners at European Digital Rights hosted the 2026 Privacy Camp in Brussels and online, themed The Origins of Future Technologies: Towards Communities of Digital Self-Determination. Panels, workshops, and documentaries brought together digital rights advocates, activists, academics, and policymakers from across Europe and beyond.
Check out the event here.

OUR CREATIVE EXHIBITIONS AROUND THE WORLD 🖼️

🤖 Hello AI! at the University of Hamburg

Tactical Tech's Hello AI! exhibition is now on show at the University of Hamburg, supporting critical conversations about artificial intelligence in higher education settings. More information here.

📱 Everywhere, All the Time at Deventer Library, Netherlands

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek has brought our youth-focused exhibition Everywhere, All the Time to Deventer Library as part of De Grote Tech-hype, a month of events exploring technology, games, algorithms, and social media.
The exhibition was co-created with 300 young people and 100 professionals worldwide and is available in Dutch. Free, for everyone aged 18-35, no registration required.
📅 21 October | 19:30 to 21:00. More information here.

✨ Hello AI! at In the Ether, ArtScience Museum, Singapore

Our partners at ArtScience Museum are presenting the third edition of In the Ether: The Rise of Sanctuary Technologies, a festival bringing together science, technology, and society through art, installations, talks, and workshops. Tactical Tech is contributing a poster from our Hello AI! exhibition.
📅 3 October to 6 December 2026 | Free admission. More information here.

📣 Hello AI! on Tour in Romania

Our partners at Asociatia Techsoup Romania translated Hello AI! into Romanian and subsequently toured the country with the exhibition. The tour engaged members of local communities, both old and young, in conversations about AI and what it means for their future.
Read our impact story about Asociatia Techsoup here.

WHAT WE ARE READING 📚