Thorborg calls Stampe’s LinkedIn post the year’s wildest statement

Entrepreneur Martin Thorborg has called culture minister Zenia Stampe’s defence of her conduct in a televised debate “the year’s wildest statement”, after their heated exchange over artificial intelligence drew widespread criticism online, DR reports.

The dispute began during Thursday’s edition of the Danish programme Debatten, when Stampe challenged Thorborg’s use of AI in writing his new autobiography. She said only one twentieth of the book had been written by Thorborg himself and described him as “not so clever” and “self-important”. Thorborg responded that the AI had been trained on his material.

Clips from the exchange spread widely on social media. Entrepreneur Jesper Buch said Stampe should have shown more humility and criticised her for talking down to Thorborg and questioning his intelligence. Badminton player Viktor Axelsen described her behaviour as embarrassing and said her tone and body language fell well below what should be expected of a minister.

Stampe said the criticism gave a misleading impression of the debate. After seeing thousands of angry comments, she said she had wondered whether she had lost control, contrary to her own memory of the exchange. But after watching the full programme, she wrote on LinkedIn that there was nothing she had said that she would not repeat.

Thorborg told DR he initially thought the post must be satire. He said he regretted becoming upset and provoked, and accepted responsibility for interrupting and swearing. He also said he believed the criticism online should prompt Stampe to reflect on her conduct.

Stampe disagreed that the criticism reflected the full exchange. She said clips and screenshots had distorted what happened, and argued that viewers needed to see the programme in full. She said she had spoken faster and louder to hold on to the floor after being interrupted.

The minister said the exchange was no more heated than debates during election campaigns or discussions in the British House of Commons. She acknowledged, however, that people would not usually interrupt or swear in a panel debate. Stampe said the focus should now return to AI, rather than allowing the argument over the debate’s tone to overshadow discussion of the technology.