And profits. And totalitarianism.
“A computer on every desk.” Has become: “A smartphone in every pocket.”
The downside of our post-PC always-connected world, is that most people don’t own, let alone control, their own data. Whether it is creepy targeting by advertisers and marketers, or full scale identity theft, we are already suffering consequences of this reality.
And it extends beyond companies trying to sell you things and thieves trying to take your things.
Governments are willing to leverage your data and profiles to manipulate and control you against your own desires; even when it means acting against their own laws. We’ve seen this with government data collection and purchasing, government-directed online censorship, and government funding and guidance of media organizations and social activists.
With AI, the consequences are only worse.
It is possible to change paths, but that means figuring out how individuals and families can host their own data โ and run AI based on it โ as easily as they use an iPhone.
Some businesses are already starting to take this approach of controlling their data and running AI models across it on their own hardware. This is a trend that will continue and grow. Their trailblazing will produce a foundation for a solution for consumers, but the challenge of bringing it to the consumer is going to take significant additional creative and technical breakthroughs above and beyond what will work industrially.
While alternatives to the technology and business models of Big Tech will take time to develop, it is both urgent and important that we do develop them.
We will either control our own data, or we’ll be controlled by those who do.
