Big Data And AI

Harnessing massive volumes of data and developing predictive models is the 21st century’s arms race. Google, Facebook and others are leading the race.

Technology innovations are morally neutral. It’s how we choose to use them that determines whether they produce good or bad outcomes. Big data and related Artificial Intelligence algorithms are different because machines can be taught to make decisions on our behalf. Depending on how these algorithms are developed human bias can creep in and distort outcomes.

Data can also be analysed to find cures for diseases, alleviate poverty, and combat climate change on the one hand or to get us to click on ads more often and buy more stuff on the other. Today, we voluntarily give up personal data about our physical activities to ‘earn’ Apple watches and cappuccinos or allow Insurance companies to monitor our driving habits in exchange for reduced premiums. 

Tomorrow, we might allow our brains to be probed for the lure of big screen TVs and free data. That’s extreme but not improbable.

There is, of course, huge upside to what has been described as Dataism, but taken to extremes, we risk losing a bit more (or a lot more) of what it means to be human.

Zaheer Ismail