Known as the ‘Abogamer’, Micaela Mantegna (AR) is a video game lawyer and activist, renowned for her expertise in digital ethics, extended reality (XR) policy, and the complex intersections of artificial intelligence, creativity, and copyright law. Author of “ARTficial: creativity, AI and copyright” (2022) and the influential essay “ARTificial: Why Copyright Is Not the Right Policy Tool to Deal with Generative AI”, her work explores in depth the implications of digital capitalism, at the intersections of intellectual property, AI, art, and ethics. In 2022, Micaela was chosen for the prestigious TED Fellowship, with her TED talk earning over 1.5M views globally. She has been an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University, while also serving on Chatham House’s Responsible AI Taskforce, the World Economic Forum’s Metaverse Council. Building on her previous work on artificial intelligence and creativity, she coined the framework of “Intimacy Technocapitalism” to critique the commodification of simulated connection in digital ecosystems, pointing to artificial empathy as the “third wave of AI” designed to mimic human attributes. She has presented keynotes and lectures in over 28 countries, at conferences like GDC, TED, GamesBeat Summit, Ada Lovelace Festival, World Summit on Arts and Culture, Vancouver Biennale, RightsCon, DLD, Internet Freedom Festival, etc. Her work has been featured in The Verge, WIRED, Le Monde and other prestigious outlets. Micaela curates the Substack “Braindancing in the #Metaverse”, critically following the developments on extended reality, AI and the geopolitics of digital technologies.
