I copied the previous post Beware of Fact-checkers… to my Fcbk where Beverley Hall very usefully remarks:

“I do question this because if you read some of the AI [Artificial Intelligence] literature there’s something going on called the ‘data wars’ – essentially between the West & East. It comes down to a type of colonisation model and who can own data platforms across various continents. This comes through WTO rules whereby data will be ‘owned’ by the provider country. So for example, any data (mobiles, social media, blockchain, Amazon etc.) say from Kenya will be owned by either the USA or Chinese companies. Latin America, Africa and SE Asia are HUGE consumer & production markets – let alone political blocks – so there’s a massive drive to get their data for market and/or political control. Because of this I’d be sceptical about West & East collaborating on anything digital.”

I thanked her and asked about her background on this because I recall her informative  contributions in the lead-in to 2016 Referendum on EU membership. Beverley replies,

“Various sources – AI ethics committees at WTO & OECD are fairly transparent. The “Why not” lab is informative and various researchers working on the 4th industrial revolution – one author to read is Yuval Noah Harari. Blockchain for example is an algorithmic-based business process used in supply chains – loads written on it. Also good to look at UKs digital policy & strategy.

“Last few years have moved into human rights in global supply chains – in this area of all things AI, gig etc working on how this plays out and has impact on working conditions & human rights in sourcing & production countries. The pandemic has accelerated this area by about 5 years and we are seeing massive changes – with little or no protections in place. A number of countries are now bringing in legalisation aligning to digital strategies.”