Thread by @ZygmuntowskiJ

General reception of AI White Paper and EU Data Strategy: a proper confirmation of European values and European sovereign tech path, though still infused with legacy economic logic. Quite vague, has better and worse moments. Some specific thoughts below. 1/x
#DigitalEU #Data #AI

First, data strategy. Take a look at the aims here. Market, openness, infinite business access to data. And a bit of EU norms & privacy. What about digital welfare state, data to improve quality of life? Confusing AIMS with TOOLS. Market is a TOOL – and an exclusive one! 2/12

The long neoliberal shadow is visible in approach to public data. We payed for it – so business will use it for free… and then levy fees for access. Didn’t we learn with @MazzucatoM how public value leakage ends with corporate behemots (eg Apple build on public R&D)? 3/12

@MazzucatoM Private and business data will be ‘incentivized’ to promote ‘data-sharing culture’. So we counter surveillance and extraction of user-generated value by paying twice and organizing data-sharing fests. Duh. 4/12

@MazzucatoM Look, public healthcare doesn’t run on ‘health altruism’. Charities are nowhere close to NHS or Polish NFZ. ‘Data altruism’ is preservation of private silos. Today sharing is not a question of individual consent, but actually digital platforms architecture. 5/12

@MazzucatoM Now the good sides. The very best – Common European Data Spaces. 10 data commons for pooling data for industry, energy, mobility, health, finance, agriculture, public admin, skills, #GreenNewDeal and open science. Hope this begins a true digital welfare EU! 6/12

@MazzucatoM At least the cloud federation project seems promising. The idea to leverage Member States and decentralized cloud is a true backbone of an egalitarian digital infrastructure. Total investment of 4-6 bln EUR is a good start. 7/12

@MazzucatoM Great to see finally realization that #GDPR is hardly enforced because of lack of IT tools. Especially the portability right is in fact legally sufficient for true #interoperability. But standards and funds have to support interfaces to use this right instantly. 8/12

@MazzucatoM The data flow measurements are super interesting if we agree that data has properties of capital nowadays (product of info labor used by leading capitalists). Tracing flows of data is akin to tracing financial flows. 9/12

@MazzucatoM Now the AI white paper. Apart from widely discussed trust and excellence (skills & investment), there is some interest in AI adoption in public sector. The problem is that the needs of welfare state should be the market shapers, the AI missions to be solved. 10/12

@MazzucatoM Governance is planned to be a framework for national authorities & AI-certification centers. Many EU countries lack the regulatory power to implement it. Digital Supervisory Authority needed very much! Special patriotic CC to @JEmilewicz & @ZagorskiMarek 11/12

@MazzucatoM @JEmilewicz @ZagorskiMarek The clear benchmarks on EU level should be met with oversight from competent authorities. The future of ADM & AI usage will be very much defined by whether public, private or other (cooperative? open-source?) certification centers step in to test the social impact. 12/12

CC: @szymielewicz @atarkowski @bpaszcza @BoboKroplewski @edwinbendyk @Przegaa @K_Izdebski @CjColclough @francesca_bria @FrankPasquale @JedrzejNiklas @AnoukRuhaak