Micaela Mantegna

Whimsical entropy, creativity spark

Known as the Abogamer, Micaela is a video game lawyer and activist who is renowned for her expertise in AI ethics, extended reality (XR) policy, and the complex relationship between artificial intelligence, creativity, culture and copyright law.

In 2022, Micaela was chosen for the TED Fellowship, with her TED talk on the ethics of the metaverse earning 1.5M+ views globally. She has been an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University, while also serving on the World Economic Forum’s Metaverse Council, and Chatham House’s Responsible AI Taskforce. She is currently a Salzburg Global Fellow, and a Datasphere Initiative Fellow.

Author of “ARTficial: creativity, AI and copyright” (2022) and the upcoming “Braindancing in the Metaverse: a capitalism of cognitive surveillance” (2025), her work explores in depth the implications of digital capitalism, at the intersections of creativity, intellectual property, ethics and aesthetics of AI.

As a keynote speaker, she has presented lectures across the globe in over 28 countries, in conferences like GDC, TED, Ars Electronica, GamesBeat Summit, Ada Lovelace Festival, Vancouver Biennale, etc, being also featured in international media like The Verge, WIRED, and Le Monde.

Her essay for the Yale Law Journal “ARTificial: Why Copyright Is Not the Right Policy Tool to Deal with Generative AI” has gained international recognition, currently being translated into Chinese.

She edits and curates the Substack newsletter “This week in the ➡️ #Metaverse,” offering weekly insights into the latest trends and policy developments on the metaverse, AI, neurotech, crypto and gaming.