Data Reigns Supreme

Dixya Poudel

The binary digits of zeroes and ones are now what run the world. Data has become ubiquitous as it is increasingly empowered through the machineries of AI (Artificial Intelligence). And AI runs, adapts and evolves according to the data provided to it. However, it is said that soon enough AI could run out of running data as it reaches the height of popularity. Since AI is the talk of the town with its deep learning and neural networks, what could tech industries then do to provide data to train it? 

Meta has considered acquiring American publisher Simon & Schuster to get access to information contained in its thousands of books. Meanwhile, Google is transcribing YouTube videos so as to fuel its AI models. OpenAI is in league as well. It has allegedly developed a tool to transcribe audio from YouTube videos. The internet it seems isn’t infinite, instead its reach is finite as opposed to the common misunderstanding. What all tech giants run by are data and information, without which they are a non-entity. Imagine Google without its vast information. It is certainly unfathomable.

Since data powers tech giants, it has become a commodity. It isn’t any wonder that companies mine data quite surreptitiously. If you are surprised to see personalised ads in your social media extremely catered to your needs, you aren’t the only one. It seems smartphone apps are constantly tracking one’s preferences and getting smarter and faster at gathering personalised feeds. One feels as if the apps are constantly listening and serving up the most relevant information, ads and so on. The vast amount of data that they are mining is certainly a cause for concern. It brings forth the murky questions of privacy.

As such, raw data is only just queuing for assembly. Once assembled by data scientists, analysts and statisticians, it turns into something meaningful, brimming with patterns. It is these patterns that AI can decipher through machine and deep learning. Large organisations deal with petabytes and exabytes of data that they use to analyse and decipher customer behaviour, optimise supply chains and predict stock market trends. All of these require powerful tools and algorithms which are supplied by AI. It isn’t just businesses that make the most of data, scientific research utilise them too. 

In scientific inquiry, data is at the centre of empirical evidence, collected through meticulous experimentation. Astronomers pore through cosmic data, meteorologists analyse weather patterns, biologists sift through numerical values from microscopes, etc. From lab benches to supercomputers, data is at the core of discovery. Gone are the times when ink-stained notebooks guarded data, now it is big data that spreads through servers, wielding power to computational expertise. Unsurprisingly, Information Technology (IT) is changing the world with each binary digit. 

Given that data holds so much potential, it could help to make its usage transparent and accountable. This way online users can hold some degree of influence over their own privacy. AI is the reality today and it could evolve even more in the future, making data ubiquitous and substantial. However, to make such data accessible, transparent and accountable, there ought to be regulations that regulate the production, creation, use and sharing of data while at the same time preventing its potential misuse at the wrong hands.