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In the third of three posts for the Salzburg Questions for Law and Technology series, Anastassia Lauterbach reflects on how the European Union can empower people to utilize data and technology well
This article is part of the Salzburg Questions for Law and Technology series by the Salzburg Global Law and Technology Forum
The Internet disrupted many traditional businesses and continued to grow in size and stature with our data. In the Renaissance, we learned the value of human work went beyond efforts just undertaken in fields and workshops. We saw value from people at writing desks, people taking part in musical concerts, and artists bringing their visions to life in studios. Today we must understand value creation can happen through our being and interacting with our digital environment. To do this, we need a legal system that finally extends the concept of ownership to data.
Countries might rethink their digital policy while recognizing the value of data. They can introduce data IDs for consumers and businesses, support innovation in decentralized data technologies, invest in data trusts and compulsory education around data starting from the early school age.
We live in a world that can duplicate many times over. Every person has a digital shadow. As early as 1991, the US American computer scientist David Gelernter spoke of “mirror worlds,” a new dimension of human life based on and driven by data. The expectation that every person individually spends the necessary time and effort to control her or his mirror world is simply unrealistic. We need to have proof of our digital identity.
Traditional methods of identity authentication are obsolete in the digital world. We urgently need a decentralized identity model that addresses security problems and gives users flexible control over the use of their data. Today many people in Europe carry an organ donation card with them. Organ donations save lives. There may be a digital equivalent that could be helpful in times of crisis like COVID-19, antibiotic resistance, or climate change. It might make good medical sense for people, organizations, and companies to donate their data for scientific purposes. Blockchain capabilities and new protocols might enable new ways to organize digital identities.
Decentralization technologies alone will not suffice to create a more sustainable world or bring new problem-solving approaches with the help of data at scale. We need institutions like data trusts, a kind of data cooperative, to provide a governance structure that organizes access to data in a way that takes into account the interests of those who create and use a particular set of data. Such data cooperatives already exist. MIDATA is a Swiss cooperative that collects and manages the health data of its members.
When footballer Cristiano Ronaldo posts a photo for his 277 million Instagram followers, the post roughly consumes 36 megawatt hours. His usage corresponds to the energy consumption of six German large family households for one year. Some predictions assume that data and communication technologies will consume up to 20 percent of global energy by 2030. A third of this consumption is in data centers.
We need to be transparent over energy consumption in data tech, and we require investments into technologies that don't require massive energy bills. We can be further transparent by bringing data tech into the equation of environmental, social, and governance disclosure.
Universities, research facilities, and Big Tech need to focus on ecological approaches to harvest and process data. Rethinking our current ways to do machine learning, fusing traditional symbolistic AI with modern methods of deep learning, and increasing efficiency with the help of renewable energies are critical.
The obsession with data has permeated every part of our lives. Political and economic efforts regarding Internet technologies will be of little use if our children know nothing about data and the structures in place. Therefore, it is difficult to understand why the digital offerings of German education policy are limited to equipping schools with digital terminals, laptops, tablets, or smartboards.
So far, Germany – and most other European countries – have failed to develop approaches to teaching data and AI technologies to school children. Only a few European initiatives on data literacy exist today. Finland is rolling out a free online course covering the basics of AI to all European Union citizens. The country hopes the nearly two million USD project will reach one percent of EU citizens by the end of 2021. The University of Helsinki and Reaktor developed the course[S2] , which is available in all EU official languages.
In contrast, digital literacy is a must in school education in China. Even the youngest children in Kindergarten learn about data and simple programming. Children love to ask "why" questions. When adults highlight data as part of the answers and find illustrative material to visualize data, they subtly teach critical skills for data literacy. Here, local initiatives are as important as big policy debates.
Albert Einstein said, “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Society can fully benefit from data only if local organizations open up to explore new technologies to adapt them to their needs. The question of data is not just a venture in the world of technology. It is about the leadership at every level of our society.
Amsterdam and Helsinki launched in September 2020 AI registries to explain how each city government uses algorithms to deliver services. The City of San Diego and an organization called SCALE jointly organize hackathons, enabling businesses to use city data to improve traffic regulation, reduce homelessness, and adopt smarter energy consumption. A project named DECODE in Barcelona and Amsterdam enabled citizens to record noise levels and air quality in their homes. Creating local data markets around municipalities might be a good step to facilitate local ecosystems and bring together schools, universities, research facilities, for-profit and non-profit businesses, and citizens.
We are at a crossroads when it comes to data. It is not too late. The Internet is still a very new technology. Data in the background – like electricity in the past - will power businesses of all sizes and industries. We can make sure that everyone gets access to the economic benefits of data, thus making our businesses and societies more sustainable. Punitive legislation won't prevent Big Tech from utilizing data for even better profits and growth. Lack of visionary insights into where to invest, what to support, and how to empower education in data and tech remains the most significant issue in Europe, not a new set of rules.
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Anastassia Lauterbach is an international board member, technology founder and entrepreneur. She serves as a non-executive director for Dun & Bradstreet, easyJet PLC, and Wirecard AG. Anastassia is member of the Advisory Council Next Generation Directors for NASDAQ and of the Diligent Institute of Corporate Governance. Anastassia serves on the advisory boards of the Ocean Protocol, a private global blockchain infrastructure and intellectual property company; Cogitanda AG, a private European cybersecurity insurance broker; and TM Forum, a non-profit global association of telecommunication companies and their vendors. Previously, Anastassia served as senior vice president and executive vice president at Qualcomm, Deutsche Telekom, and Daimler Chrysler. She started her professional path at the Munich Reinsurance Group and McKinsey & Company. She is CEO and founder of 1AU-Ventures and currently advises several U.S. and European based artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity companies and investment funds, including Evolution Partners and Analytics Ventures. She trains boards in cybersecurity and cognitive AI and robotics-related technologies and their links to corporate governance. She advises the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations organization, on AI policy and governance. Her book The Artificial Intelligence Imperative: A Practical Roadmap for Business has sold 35,000 copies. Anastassia has a Ph.D. in linguistics and psychology from the Rheinisch Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn and a diploma in linguistics from the State Lomonosov University, Moscow. She is a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar.
The Salzburg Questions for Law and Technology is an online discussion series introduced and led by Fellows of the Salzburg Global Law and Technology Forum. The articles and comments represent opinions of the authors and commenters and do not necessarily represent the views of their corporations or institutions, nor of Salzburg Global Seminar. Readers are welcome to address any questions about this series to Forum Director, Charles E. Ehrlich: cehrlich@salzburgglobal.org