Creating the Data Economy

04/17/19 • 32 min

Our society has become increasingly reliant on data, but its value is not accessible to all. Of the 16 billion terabytes of data created globally in 2016, only 1% was analyzed. Among other discrepancies, the growing data monopolies concentrate power over certain technologies such as artificial intelligence precluding their positive impact on society.

Trent McConaghy, AI researcher and the founder of the decentralized data exchange, Ocean Protocol, is aiming to solve this by enabling individuals and organizations to share, monetize, and access data.

In this conversation, Trent and Azeem Azhar discuss:

The real-world impact of deep learning and error reduction, and why we have not yet fully leveraged data’s learning potential.
Early use cases of successful data exchange in mining and autonomous driving.
Drawing distinctions between human rights and tradable property, should ownership of personal data be protected as a human right?

Further Reading:

“The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data” (2009)
“The Web3 Data Economy Towards a Transparent, Permissionless Ecosystem to Spread the Benefits of AI” (Nov. 22, 2018)
“Major Automakers, Startups, Technology Companies and Others Launch Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI)” (May 4, 2018)
“Is It Your Data” (Jan. 22, 2019)
“Should we treat data as labor? Let’s open up the discussion” (Feb. 21, 2018)
“We need to own our data as a human right — and be compensated for it” (Jan. 21, 2019)
“This AI Company Is The Future Of Gold Exploration” (February, 2019)
Open Data Impact Map

Trent McConaghy @trentmc0
Azeem Azhar @azeem
www.exponentialview.co

In this conversation, Trent and Azeem Azhar discuss:

The real-world impact of deep learning and error reduction, and why we have not yet fully leveraged data’s learning potential.
Early use cases of successful data exchange in mining and autonomous driving.
Drawing distinctions between human rights and tradable property, should ownership of personal data be protected as a human right?

Further Reading:

“The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data” (2009)
“The Web3 Data Economy Towards a Transparent, Permissionless Ecosystem to Spread the Benefits of AI” (Nov. 22, 2018)
“Major Automakers, Startups, Technology Companies and Others Launch Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI)” (May 4, 2018)
“Is It Your Data” (Jan. 22, 2019)
“Should we treat data as labor? Let’s open up the discussion” (Feb. 21, 2018)
“We need to own our data as a human right — and be compensated for it” (Jan. 21, 2019)
“This AI Company Is The Future Of Gold Exploration” (February, 2019)
Open Data Impact Map

Trent McConaghy @trentmc0
Azeem Azhar @azeem
www.exponentialview.co

Previous Episode

Designing Responsible AI

“Intelligence is central to everything humans do, and artificial intelligence should be no exception.” With these words, Joanna Bryson urges for stronger professional standards for software engineers and experts designing intelligent-like systems.

Joanna is a tenured associate professor at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, where she founded the Bath Intelligence Systems group. She is one of the world’s leading AI researchers, uniting the perspectives of computer science, psychology, and biology in her work.

In this podcast, Azeem Azhar and Joanna explore:

The role of goals in conceptualizing and programming intelligence systems — and who sets these goals?
The risks and inadequacies of anthropomorphizing AI.
The critical importance of assuring ongoing human involvement in AI systems.
The explainability of AI systems and litigation over the definition of ‘explanation’ in light of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Further Reading:

Group Agency: The Possibility, Design and Agency of Corporate Agents (April 7, 2011)
UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Accountable, Responsible and Transparent AI (ART-AI)
Joanna Bryson et al, “Semantics derived automatically from language corpora contain human-like biases” (April 14, 2017)
Nick Bostrom, “Ethical Issues in Advanced Artificial Intelligence”
Joanna Bryson, “No one should trust AI – AND – Presenting robots as people stops us thinking clearly about AI” (Dec. 23, 2018)

Joanna Bryson @j2bryson
Azeem Azhar @azeem
www.exponentialview.co

Next Episode

The Innovation Economy

“We haven’t really understood the power of the state,” argues economist Mariana Mazzucato, warning that this has impacted the rising inequality in wealth creation and distribution. Mariana and Azeem Azhar discuss the role of government in innovation and business growth, risk-taking as the new mentality of bureaucracy, and how the benefits of entrepreneurial innovation have been misread. Above all, the case is made for a new theory of value in today’s economy.

In this conversation, Mariana and Azeem also discuss:

The role of the entrepreneurial state: moving away from the concept of the state as a facilitator and towards the state as an actor in the future of public-serving innovation.
Why the GDP model is flawed — but why we should retain it as one of several economic indicators.
Creeping privatization of the ‘data economy.’

Further Reading: