Our digital age and the exercise and contestation of power
8 months, 1 week ago

Our digital age and the exercise and contestation of power

Hindustan Times  

Over the last 30 years, digital innovation has been met with vacillating opinions on whether technology is emancipatory or tends to benefit those with political and/or economic power. In the context of innovations in Artificial Intelligence in the early 2020s, this brief tackles the question: In a digital age, what is new in who exercises power over whom? It focuses on the power of States in relation to both citizens and territory, and outlines four areas where fundamental changes are taking place in the exercise and contestation of power: new State dependencies on tech firms; digitalisation of citizenship; the preoccupation with the potential for total surveillance; and new concerns and claims to territorial rule. Artificial Intelligence By late 2023, it had seemed clear that the world is shifting towards a digital age, whereby information in the form of digital data underpins social, economic and political activities and decision-making. A ‘digital age’ provokes existential concerns that digital technology might surpass human performance and control, or that Big Tech will become a ‘new leviathan’ that will challenge state sovereignty.

Tech Digital Ai  technology  power  contestation  digital  potential  state  tech  ai  age  political  exercise  technological

History of this topic

’AI is rewiring technology and accelerating human ingenuity,’ Sundar Pichai urges policymakers to consider its benefits
1 month, 3 weeks ago

’AI is rewiring technology and accelerating human ingenuity,’ Sundar Pichai urges policymakers to consider its benefits

Live Mint  

Google’s Chief Executive, Sundar Pichai, has described artificial intelligence as a “fundamental rewiring of technology” and an “accelerant of human ingenuity” during a major AI summit in the French capital. While AI’s rapid evolution has sparked concerns over its societal impact, Pichai urged policymakers and industry leaders to look beyond short-term fears and recognise the long-term benefits. “Every generation worries …

Over a third of EU firms adopt AI, bringing digital goals in reach
1 year, 2 months ago

Over a third of EU firms adopt AI, bringing digital goals in reach

The Hindu  

More than a third of European businesses adopted artificial intelligence in 2023 as use of generative AI surged, a report commissioned by Amazon Web Services found. The European Commission, the EU executive, in 2021 presented its 2030 Digital Decade vision to transform the region, with 80% of the population acquiring basic digital skills, 5G connectivity everywhere and 75% of EU …

‘We are watching as AI renders people irrelevant’
1 year, 6 months ago

‘We are watching as AI renders people irrelevant’

The Hindu  

Usha Ramanathan says that she is a tech skeptic. But it changes when every system gets digitised, people get coerced onto databases, and something like the UID number becomes ubiquitous cutting across silos— just listen, and you will hear the word `seamless’, much too often. Experience from across the world tells us that data breaches may go undetected for a …

Tech-Enabled Firms Have Built Their Own Digital States
3 years, 3 months ago

Tech-Enabled Firms Have Built Their Own Digital States

Wired  

In 2022, we will build on the virtual existence many of us have been living during the pandemic and enter a world where digital “countries” exist alongside nation states. A new breed of technology-enabled firms will create a kind of “digital state”, which gives its “citizens” rights, tools and the services needed to work, live and consume more flexibly where …

Artificial intelligence must not exacerbate inequality further
3 years, 4 months ago

Artificial intelligence must not exacerbate inequality further

Al Jazeera  

UNESCO has put forward a framework that can help reverse the negative trends in the AI revolution. Because it can process vast amounts of data rapidly, AI is ensuring more and more people in developing countries have access to microfinance, healthcare and remote-learning opportunities. Developing countries are largely absent from or not well-represented in most prominent forums on artificial intelligence, …

India lags behind China in artificial intelligence by a decade, may slip towards digital colonisation
3 years, 4 months ago

India lags behind China in artificial intelligence by a decade, may slip towards digital colonisation

Firstpost  

China has been using artificial intelligence as its strategic weapon to leapfrog ahead of the United States and achieve global domination Artificial intelligence amplifies human mind and ingenuity in amazing ways across virtually every domain. India is lagging behind China in AI by at least a decade, and it also routinely gives away its unique data assets to foreign countries …

Protecting children in the age of AI
3 years, 11 months ago

Protecting children in the age of AI

The Hindu  

We are now living among history’s very first “AI” generation. Children’s right to freedom of attention It does not help that the AI systems driving many video games and social networks are designed to keep children hooked, both through algorithms and gimmicks like “streaks”, “likes”, infinite scroll, etc. Operationalising child rights and protections So, how do we simultaneously close the …

For artificial intelligence to flourish, governments need to think ahead about its responsible use
4 years, 5 months ago

For artificial intelligence to flourish, governments need to think ahead about its responsible use

Firstpost  

With technology blurring international boundaries, governments need to cooperate and collaborate to put mechanisms in place to manage the power of AI. Artificial Intelligence simply means The ability to crunch lots and lots of data at extremely high speeds at very low costs using of machines So far, the human mind was the fastest known data cruncher, and we prided …

The World According to AI
5 years, 9 months ago

The World According to AI

Al Jazeera  

How will Artificial Intelligence be used in the future? In episode one of The Big Picture: The World According to AI, we chart the evolution of artificial intelligence from its post-World War II origins and, dissect the mechanisms by which existing prejudices are built into the very systems that are supposed to be free of human bias. The Big Picture: …

Don’t lose sight: data is the key
6 years, 3 months ago

Don’t lose sight: data is the key

Live Mint  

It’s that time of the year when our quarterly ‘Digital Dossier’ takes stock of technologies that are still maturing, and those that are likely to fall along the wayside under the weight of their own hype. Sophisticated machine learning—considered a subset of artificial intelligence—and deep learning algorithms are being trained on humongous amounts of data to draw inferences and patterns …

Digital economy bringing beneficial disruption
7 years ago

Digital economy bringing beneficial disruption

China Daily  

A former classmate, who resigned from her job as a research and development engineer at Facebook in the United Kingdom, has returned to Beijing and joined a local startup providing artificial intelligence technology and services. The digital economy is expected to be a hot discussion topic in the coming days during the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and …

India best placed to leverage technology: PM
7 years, 1 month ago

India best placed to leverage technology: PM

The Quint  

Hyderabad, Feb 19 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that India with one of the most tech-friendly populations, was best placed to leverage power of technology and leapfrog into future.He said the country is the hot-spot of digital innovation across all sectors. "With one lakh villlages linked with optical fibre, over 100 crore mobile phones, 120 crore Aadhar and …

Hi-tech innovations prompting future life style with pros and cons
7 years, 3 months ago

Hi-tech innovations prompting future life style with pros and cons

China Daily  

JERUSALEM - Autonomous cars will drive people to work. "If your imagination is only limited to bad things, then probably the next things that will come out of big data will be bad things," proposed Peled. Twenge says they are "on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades," with a sharp increase in depression and suicide levels amongst …

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