As her third lesson for the graduates, Merkel posed this question as the essential ethical test for the age of artificial intelligence and digital transformation. She asked whether we were laying down the rules for technology or letting technology dictate how we interact, and whether we prioritized people as individuals with dignity or merely saw them as 'consumers, data sources, objects of surveillance.' The question carried extra weight coming from Merkel, who as Chancellor had to navigate these tensions in real time — from NSA surveillance revelations to Facebook's role in elections to the regulation of autonomous vehicles. She urged graduates not to act on first impulses, 'even when there is pressure to make a snap decision. But instead take a moment to stop. Be still. Think. Pause.' The subtext was unmistakable — this was a pointed contrast to a style of governance driven by Twitter impulses rather than reflection.