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Why Big Tech companies are like “digital nation states”
No government today has the toolbox to tinker with Big Tech – that's why it's time to start thinking of the biggest tech companies as bona fide "digital nation states" with their own foreign relations, Ian Bremmer explains on GZERO World. Never has a small group of companies held such an expansive influence over humanity. And in this vast new digital territory, governments have little idea what to do.
Watch this episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer: Big Tech: Global sovereignty, unintended consequences
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Podcast: Brave new big tech world: Nicholas Thompson's perspective
Listen: Can Big Government still rein in Big Tech or has it already lost control? Never before have just a few companies exerted such an outsized influence on humanity. Today's digital space, where we live so much of our daily lives, has increasingly become an area that national governments are unable to control. It may be time to start thinking of these corporations as nation-states in their own rights. Ian Bremmer speaks with Nicholas Thompson, CEO of the Atlantic and former WIRED editor-in-chief, about how to police the digital world.
Is Donald Trump returning to social media?
Jon Lieber, head of Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, shares insights on US politics:
A Trump media platform? Is this for real?
This week, President Trump announced his potential return to social media through the creation of his own digital media platform that's going to merge with an existing publicly-traded company in a deal known as a SPAC. These deals are increasingly popular for getting access to capital, and it seems like that's where President Trump is headed.
The publicly-traded company's stock was up on the news, but it's really hard to see this coming together. The Trump media company claims it wants to go up against not only Facebook and Twitter, but companies like Amazon and cloud computing and even Disney providing a safe space for conservatives to share their points of view. The fact of the matter is, conservatives do quite well on existing social media platforms when they aren't being kicked off for violating the terms of service, and other conservative social media platforms that have attempted to launch this year haven't really gone off the ground.
More likely, this is a recognition by President Trump that he's unlikely to be restated into Facebook and Twitter anytime soon, and that can really matter because it will end up silencing, taking away one of his key platforms in the run up to the 2022 midterms and potentially as he prepares his own run for president in 2024.
It's possible that next year we'll all be sharing cat pictures on President Trump's social media platform, but these platforms take years to build, involving millions of dollars of investment and people and technology, and critically, they need a critical mass of a network to get them off the ground. It's really hard to see that happening. I'd be surprised if this SPAC even goes ahead.
Is a robot coming for your job? Kai-Fu Lee explains AI
Artificial intelligence is changing the way we live — and very soon it'll go beyond medical breakthroughs and the algorithms that control your social newsfeeds. Will AI become the biggest technological disrupter since the Industrial Revolution, replacing many workers with robots? In this week's show, Ian Bremmer discusses the future of AI with AI scientist Kai-fu Lee, who's just come out with a book about what our AI-driven world may look like 20 years from now.
Facebook's terrible week proves tech policy changes are needed
Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center, Eurasia Group senior advisor and former MEP, discusses trends in big tech, privacy protection and cyberspace:
Will the testimony of the whistleblower be a game changer?
Now it certainly was a down week for Facebook, which also faced a major outage and new accusations by Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who provided a trove of information first to the Wall Street Journal, and then gave testimony before US Congress. She reminded the world of how little transparency we really have into what Facebook does and how its business models create societal harms. But really after a week of outcry, we need more than that. Only clear policies will bring back the balance between the power of private companies like Facebook and independent oversight.
What policies are needed to tame the Facebook beast?
Well, in the US there has been a disproportionate focus on speech protections, which are of course key, but so is non-discrimination or antitrust. And the collection, brokering, sell, and use of data is crucial to the business models of social media giants. And with the US federal data governance law, that includes protections, but also foresees an access to data for researchers, the way that EU proposals do, a step in the right direction can be made. Only when we have a better sense of the effects of digital services, can we have a well-informed public debate and the appropriate public policies. So there are different parts of a legislative puzzle that have to come together. Unfortunately, no silver bullets. But hopefully the many harms that are now crystal clear, whether they involve children, democracy, or fair competition, can be solved with clear antitrust rules, privacy protections, data governance, and access provisions, which together will ensure greater accountability and democratic guarantees.
Let's align interests to regulate Big Tech algorithms — AI scientist Kai-fu Lee
This week's bombshell revelation of Facebook putting profits over people has sparked fresh calls to get tougher on Big Tech. And for AI scientist Kai-fu Lee, companies will just keep using algorithms to benefit their bottom lines if left unchecked. So, what can we do? Clearly establishing what's "unacceptable" would help, he says, as would coming up with a definition of fake news that almost all people can agree on. Watch his interview with Ian Bremmer on the upcoming episode of GZERO World.