Money Talks: Information used to want to be free

The mantra from the mid-2000s that “data is the new oil” is taking on a new sheen: tapping and refining it into personalised advertisements has become harder, thanks to increasing regulation and the self-serving policies of the tech behemoths. Meanwhile artificial intelligence is a data-guzzler, eschewing the pointedly personal in favour of the revealing aggregate. Both trends raise thorny questions about ownership of the precious underlying resource.

On this week’s show, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin, Mike Bird and Alice Fulwood examine how data are gathered and traded, and Kenn Cukier, a deputy executive editor at The Economist, describe the changes in online tracking that altered those paths. Sir Martin Sorrell, chairman of S4 Capital, a digital-advertising firm, describes how his industry is shifting. And Dennis Cinelli, chief financial officer of Scale AI, a data startup, surveys the land-grab of data among artificial-intelligence firms.

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