Page 63 - Monocle Quarterly Journal Vol 3 Issue 2 Spring

BIG TECH AND THE COLONISATION OF DATA
The issues surrounding the legality of a 3D-printed gun are amplified in the rise of artificial intelligence more broadly. Whereas the history of our law-making logic lies very much in the regulation of physical actions and the control of movement of goods across national borders, arguably the most powerful resource of our modern time does not reside in a strictly physical form. The fuel for the machines of the AI revolution – perhaps even more precious today than the oil that drove our previously mechanical revolution – is data.
Data is now being gathered and sold as the most prized commodity of our time, yet this trade is still largely unregulated. World leaders are slowly starting to take notice, although possibly not entirely aware of the significance of the moment, with president Trump tweeting about the Defense Distributed case saying, “I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!” And whilst this statement does not immediately make clear what Trump’s position is on the issue – whether he is advocating for or against the free distribution of these 3D-printed gun schematics – the ambiguity of the statement is indicative of the impotence
that now exists amongst leaders and lawmakers regarding the growing dangers present in the cyber realm.
The detrimental outcomes that can result from legislators’ indecision were exposed in the case of Defense Distributed, since before being served cease and desist
Even then with the temporary restraining order being put in
place, the metaphorical genie was already out of the bottle.
orders, Cody Wilson’s company had already allowed over a million downloads of their 3D gun blueprints to users across the world. Even then, with the temporary restraining order being put in place, the metaphorical genie was already out of the bottle. With potentially life- threatening developments advancing every day in the form of 3D-printed guns, bombs and innumerable other weapons – and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence capabilities that are yet untested in terms of safety and stability – lawmakers must draw a hard line on what is acceptable and what is not in the digital landscape.
3.5 BIG TECH AND THE COLONISATION OF DATA
When you start a business, you start by solving a problem. If your product or service can meet your customer’s most pressing needs in a unique and effective way, then the business that you build around this premise is all the more likely to succeed. And this idea, to start a business by solving a problem, was just as pertinent 150 years ago, when in 1854 an ambitious French entrepreneur dreamt up a wildly ambitious business idea that he believed could change the world. The businessman was Ferdinand de Lesseps and the problem he had identified was the fact that for European ships to get to the Far East to trade with strategically
The solution he proposed was
to cut a path of nearly
200 kilometres through the Egyptian desert to create
a waterway between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
important and resource-rich nations such as India, they had to make the long and treacherous journey around the southern-most tip of Africa and back up again past the Horn of Africa. The solution he proposed was to cut
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