The interconnections of the digital age have blurred the distinctions between economic and security issues. Dominant tech companies are both engines of economic growth and channels of security risks. They also enjoy outsized profits, global market penetration and the ability to set industry standards. Trade and industrial policies are therefore easily hijacked by broader security and geopolitical priorities
The coming of age of AI on a wider scale will eventually lead to need for surveillance. My concern is related to healthcare data alone, which, if falls into the hands of insurance companies, will lead to higher risk mitigation in the form of raised premiums. There is no direct evidence it is happening, but the market signs are all out in the clear-monopolisation of the services and industrialisation of medicine.
Here’s another interesting point:
Traditional analogue sovereignty, as he calls it — which controls territory, resources and people — remains a necessary function of modern states, but that is now insufficient. It must also reach an accommodation with digital power, which controls data, software, standards and protocols and is mostly in the hands of global tech companies.
The EU already took the lead in 2018 by adopting the General Data Protection Regulation, which has in effect defined global data usage standards. This week, the EU also laid out plans to pioneer legislation governing the use of artificial intelligence.
The push back is happening against the unbridled concentration of power. We are in the midst of the ground being prepared for AI wars.
RadOncNotes 