No price tag on data, it's far more valuable than iron today: Yuval Noah Harari
The author believes that we are in the new-age colonialism led by corporations.
By Masoom Gupte, ET Bureau | Updated:
Agencies
When Israeli author Yuval Noah Harari speaks, attention must be paid. His theories for the future, as grim as they may sound, could well be the reality if corrective measures are not taken to regulate the reach of technology.
At his last talk in Mumbai, Harari spoke of a “new form of imperialism and colonialism” — data mining colonies, created by large scale corporations in the developing nations. To make his point, he gave the example of the self-driving car industry.
“The biggest obstacle for self-driving vehicles is that they are unsafe at present. Developed countries like the US and Germany do not want to allow self-driving vehicles on the road before they are safe. But if you don’t allow them on the road, you cannot really fix the problems. Because no matter how many experiments you do in the laboratory, it doesn’t really give you data about real life situations,” Harari said.
The danger is that big corporations will start selling these self-driving vehicles in developing countries, which will have laxer regulations and rules, he added.
“There will be accidents in these countries. Data harvested in these countries may be used to upgrade and perfect the vehicles and those can be sold everywhere,” he said.
“If a company wants to buy iron from a country, it must pay something to the seller. But there is no price tag on data, considering that it is far more valuable than iron today,” Harari said.
His solution: may be a union of data-producing countries, along the lines of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC. According to him, it seems likely at present that those who control data will control the world. And where is all this data going? Currently, “to only two places — US and China”.
At his last talk in Mumbai, Harari spoke of a “new form of imperialism and colonialism” — data mining colonies, created by large scale corporations in the developing nations. To make his point, he gave the example of the self-driving car industry.
“The biggest obstacle for self-driving vehicles is that they are unsafe at present. Developed countries like the US and Germany do not want to allow self-driving vehicles on the road before they are safe. But if you don’t allow them on the road, you cannot really fix the problems. Because no matter how many experiments you do in the laboratory, it doesn’t really give you data about real life situations,” Harari said.
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The danger is that big corporations will start selling these self-driving vehicles in developing countries, which will have laxer regulations and rules, he added.
“There will be accidents in these countries. Data harvested in these countries may be used to upgrade and perfect the vehicles and those can be sold everywhere,” he said.
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The highest price will be paid by the people in the data colonies in such a scenario and all the revenue will go to the artificial intelligence leaders, likely based in the developed world. “If a company wants to buy iron from a country, it must pay something to the seller. But there is no price tag on data, considering that it is far more valuable than iron today,” Harari said.
His solution: may be a union of data-producing countries, along the lines of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC. According to him, it seems likely at present that those who control data will control the world. And where is all this data going? Currently, “to only two places — US and China”.
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