Article by Tony Curzon Price: “Is 2026 the year that data collectives – unions, trusts, mutuals and clubs – tilt the balance of power in cyberspace away from mega-platforms and towards the citizen?
Last year, tech boss Sam Altman enabled ChatGPT to better remember past conversations in some jurisdictions, meaning that the AI might soon know us better than anyone else. In response to this sort of shift in power, we saw the creation of the First International Data Union (FIDU) to ensure that the data, knowledge and intimacy that Altman wants for ChatGPT would remain under members’ control and be managed according to their values.
Generative AI is causing a major overhaul of humanity’s life in cyberspace. There aren’t many examples of this sort of change – the web itself, Web 2.0 platforms, social media and mobile. The arrival of generative AI is upturning a decades-old equilibrium. ChatGPT has been the fastest-growing consumer application in history. It is displacing Google search in many lives. Open source models, especially from China, suggest that there are no natural moats in the technology, which means businesses can easily be overtaken by competitors with similar ideas.
Since the 2010s, many citizens and countries have become uncomfortable with how mega platforms have shaped the web. Scholars have pointed to these changes as important contributors to the deterioration of the mental health of children, the economic growth crisis and even falling global average IQs.
With the pieces of the cyberspace puzzle thrown into the air, citizens and governments do not want what happens next to be a repeat of what came before. Yet governments have discovered that their traditional policy tools against market power, like antitrust, are largely ineffective. Moreover, with the United States pushing back against tighter regulation abroad, even direct regulation by non-US states is proving difficult.
With other avenues of control largely defanged, this might be the moment for data unions. Data mutualisation promises to harness the collective power of citizens, providing a direct challenge to platforms…(More)”.
