The new minefield of technology for AI and healthcare delivery
A century ago, the resource in question was oil. Now similar concerns are being raised by the giants that deal in data, the oil of the digital era. These titans—Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft—look unstoppable. They are the five most valuable listed firms in the world. Their profits are surging: they collectively racked up over $25bn in net profit in the first quarter of 2017. But there is cause for concern. Internet companies’ control of data gives them enormous power. Old ways of thinking about competition, devised in the era of oil, look outdated in what has come to be called the “data economy”
The Economist chose to highlight the story around “surging profits” and the ability of the big-tech to commander “God’s eye view”. Acquisitions are made on the basis of “network effects” and understanding how those networks transact, because their financial data is valuable for the rent seekers (or the ones providing the mechanism to facilitate these networks for “free”). For once, I agreed with their viewpoint – the existing mechanisms are lopsided and do nothing to promote competition. Hence, there is an illusion of “progress” without any real progress being made. Start-ups are promising “flying cars” and everything “electric”; better “healthcare” by summoning the digital assistants and the promise of “telemedicine by trying to adapt the collaboration tools meant for some other business transactions at a distance.
The creep of technology companies in our personal lives is beyond measure and privacy/surveillance concerns are valid enough. Hence, there has been a policy push towards trying to “reign them in”. From the Economist:
