How Singapore is providing a living lab for the Data Economy and Ocean Protocol
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Over the next 4 to 6 weeks we will share in a series of posts and formal announcements covering DEX activities in Singapore with the people, start-up’s, SME’s, public sector and MNC partners. This is the first in the series.
We are in the Data Economy. The Data Economy gives control back to data owners, and at the same time, exposes data to AI for discovery and consumption making everyone an entrepreneur with their own data. Data becomes fuel to power growth, innovation and change.
“In the Data Economy, enterprises will succeed or fail based on how well they leverage data to:
• Improve operational efficiencies
• Make better tactical and front-line decisions;
• Make better strategic and “big picture” decisions;
• Automate real-time business processes;
• Manage risk, security and privacy; and,
• Collaborate and co-innovate with partners and competitors.
It is also a connected economy in which partners and competitors alike share data and integrate business processes where the resulting benefits to overall markets, the enterprises themselves and customers outweigh the risks of such collaboration.”[1]
Companies hold data but are not able to mobilize it.
Advances in cloud storage, computing and big data technologies have made it easier for any company to become a data company.
The world’s data is growing exponentially, yet not enough is being utilized. Massive amounts of data are collected only to sit dormant (more or less securely) on servers with no commercial or otherwise benefit for the economy and individuals. According to McKinsey[2], only 1% of data is analyzed.
Chief Data Officers and Chief Information Officers of companies are increasingly asked to monetize the data companies hold, rather than purely managing and protecting data[3]. But barriers to sharing, mostly due to the inherent risks associated with it due to the limitations of existing technical protocols, make such a task extremely difficult, cumbersome and, ultimately, rare.
All this while AI is starving for data — in fact data, not algorithms, is the key limiting factor to the development of human-level artificial intelligence. What we are facing is a major data crisis — data is silo’ed and not being shared enough to solve humanity’s big problems.
AI will be the wonder child of the Data Economy and will bring huge impact to humankind, but it is not yet able to flourish because of barriers to data sharing.
Companies and governments alike are formulating plans to stay ahead and ensure a democratized Data Economy builds a vibrant, leading, innovative, inclusive AI world. Major data companies, in fact, keep data close to their chest to maintain their dominance in the AI market.
More needs to be done to make sure that data becomes accessible so as to be used for good or we will not be able to build an inclusive future of AI for all.
The forming monopoly on AI
Today a handful of digital giants are accused[4] of being BAADD — big, anti-competitive, addictive and destructive to democracy. The Economist recent article[5] on taming such big digital companies, suggests that personal data is the currency in which customers actually buy services.
They put forward two interesting ways to break the monopoly of data by big tech titans:
• Giving people more control over their information (this is already in progress via GDPR[6] and PSD2[7]).
• Regulators could oblige platform firms to make anonymised bulk data available to competitors, in return for a fee. Such data-sharing requirements could be calibrated to firms’ size: the bigger platforms are, the more they have to share. These mechanisms would turn data from something titans hoard, to suppress competition, into something users share, to foster innovation.
Governments understand how pressing the issue has become and are getting involved in creating frameworks and policies to shape a better future for AI.
Governments are devising policies to drive widespread growth of AI.
According to the report Growing the Artificial Intelligence Industry in the UK[8], released jointly by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, the UK “…could add an additional USD $814 billion (£630bn) to the UK economy by 2035, increasing the annual growth rate of GVA from 2.5 to 3.9%. (…) To continue developing and applying AI, the UK will need to increase ease of access to data in a wider range of sectors.”
“The review recommends:
• Development of data trusts, to improve trust and ease around sharing data
• Making more research data machine readable
• Supporting text and data mining as a standard and essential tool for research. ”
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published[9] a three year action plan on how to foster development of AI. This vision document lays out the new economy China wants to build centred around AI. And the Next Generation AI Development plan[10] recommends building of data sharing exchanges and open platforms and libraries. There are bold plans[11] to make China a leading player in AI ecosystem by 2035[12].
Dubai appointed a minister[13] for AI to foster a long term plan and policy for development of AI ecosystem. Saudi Arabia became the first country to grant citizenship to a robot — Sophia[14].
Singapore is at the forefront of digital innovation for AI and is spearheading data sharing through sandboxes.
While the world is busy discussing ways forward, Singapore is actively taking the steps to become a leading light in data exchanges and marketplaces so as to enable a vibrant Data Economy for AI and beyond.
Singapore is driving digitisation across the nation and it has initiated a Data Sandbox Programme to catalyse data-driven innovation and data sharing in Singapore.
The idea of the sandboxes is to create a safe space where companies can push the boundaries and build new applications and services. The programme loosens the rules within a limited framework so governance, compliance, assurance, regulations, security etc. can be tested for new technologies and platforms, with oversight.
The expected deliverables of the data sandboxes will be:
1. Industry-led data sandboxes where public sector and companies (SME’s and corporates) join the data exchange;
2. A decentralized data platform that allows data providers to find data consumers;
3. A secure, public and decentralized network with novel mechanisms for pricing of data, and privacy-oriented data sharing and licensing;
4. Each of the sandboxes will cover a certain industry vertical and industry opportunity where data providers and consumers will be invited to participate.
DEX will be a driving force of this initiative which will be completely inclusive by bringing together a full ecosystem of data scientists, AI developers, corporates, SME’s, open source community, data commons networks, blockchain and crypto community.
The data sharing marketplace will be built on Ocean Protocol, powered by a utility token.
Last year, DEX founded Ocean Protocol Foundation, a non-profit foundation based in Singapore, in partnership with BigchainDB.
Ocean Protocol is an exchange protocol designed for planetary scale and uses blockchain technology. The protocol enables a decentralized platform and the creation of a network connecting providers and consumers of valuable data. By providing open access for developers to build services, it will enable the unlocking of data particularly for AI.
Everyone is invited to participate in these sandboxes
Everyone is invited to participate in these sandboxes and in the coming weeks and months more announcement will follow together with updates on the developments. The intention is to bring the whole ecosystem together — the individual, the SME, the corporates, the governments and all who care about the future of the data economy and AI.
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A Data Economy will flourish when data can and will be shared as an asset in a safe manner to enable human-level artificial intelligence innovation. Only with the participation of as many parties as possible can such innovation take on global challenges and bring planetary-wide improvements.
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[1]The Data Economy Manifesto, Jeff Kelly http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/The_Data_Economy_Manifesto
[2] http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/the-internet-of-things-the-value-of-digitizing-the-physicalworld
[3]https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/06/chief_data_officers_increasingly_told_to_monetise_data/
[4] https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21735021-dominance-google-facebook-and-amazon-bad-consumers-and-competition-how-tame
[5] https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21735021-dominance-google-facebook-and-amazon-bad-consumers-and-competition-how-tame
[7] https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/payment-services-psd-2-directive-eu-2015-2366_en
[8] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/growing-the-artificial-intelligence-industry-in-the-uk
[9]http://www.miit.gov.cn/n1146295/n1652858/n1652930/n3757016/c5960820/content.html
[10] https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2017/07/20/a-next-generation-artificial-intelligence-development-plan/
[11] https://futurism.com/china-building-2-1-billion-industrial-park-ai-research/
[12] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609038/chinas-ai-awakening/
[13] https://futurism.com/dubai-just-appointed-a-state-minister-for-artificial-intelligence/
[14] https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/saudi-arabia-first-nation-to-grant-citizenship-to-robot/4098338.html