“Any data collected can be reprocessed and analyzed in new ways in the future that are unanticipated at the time of collection and this has major implications for the global economy and for democracy.”
In an increasingly digital economy, challenges posed by AI, machine learning and big data have emerged as new threats to the democratic process, with disinformation increasingly infiltrating social media feeds. At the IMF Statistical Forum in November 2018, Jim Balsillie spoke with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and called for a “new Bretton Woods moment.” Balsillie said a coordinated international response such as that in 1944 is necessary to counter increasing geopolitical and economic turbulence resulting from a lack of international rules for the digital economy. This idea was discussed in multiple publications, including by Financial Times US editor Gillian Tett.
CIGI President Rohinton P. Medhora tackled the challenges from a policy perspective. In his policy brief Rethinking Policy in a Digital World, Medhora traces the rapidly changing social and economic landscape resulting from a shift away from traditional products toward “intangibles” — data and IP. New policies, he says, must be creative and reformulated for a digital age.