If good data is key to decarbonization, more than half of Asia’s economies are being locked out of progress, this report says

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Blog by Ewan Thomson: “If measuring something is the first step towards understanding it, and understanding something is necessary to be able to improve it, then good data is the key to unlocking positive change. This is particularly true in the energy sector as it seeks to decarbonize.

But some countries have a data problem, according to energy think tank Ember and climate solutions enabler Subak’s Asia Data Transparency Report 2023, and this lack of open and reliable power-generation data is holding back the speed of the clean power transition in the region.

Asia is responsible for around 80% of global coal consumption, making it a big contributor to carbon emissions. Progress is being made on reducing these emissions, but without reliable data on power generation, measuring the rate of this progress will be challenging.

These charts show how different Asian economies are faring on data transparency on power generation and what can be done to improve both the quality and quantity of the data.

Infographic showing the number of economies by overall transparency score.

Over half of Asian countries lack reliable data in their power sectors, Ember says. Image: Ember

There are major data gaps in 24 out of the 39 Asian economies covered in the Ember research. This means it is unclear whether the energy needs of the nearly 700 million people in these 24 economies are being met with renewables or fossil fuels…(More)”.

AI Is Tearing Wikipedia Apart

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Claire Woodcock: “As generative artificial intelligence continues to permeate all aspects of culture, the people who steward Wikipedia are divided on how best to proceed. 

During a recent community call, it became apparent that there is a community split over whether or not to use large language models to generate content. While some people expressed that tools like Open AI’s ChatGPT could help with generating and summarizing articles, others remained wary. 

The concern is that machine-generated content has to be balanced with a lot of human review and would overwhelm lesser-known wikis with bad content. While AI generators are useful for writing believable, human-like text, they are also prone to including erroneous information, and even citing sources and academic papers which don’t exist. This often results in text summaries which seem accurate, but on closer inspection are revealed to be completely fabricated. 

“The risk for Wikipedia is people could be lowering the quality by throwing in stuff that they haven’t checked,” Bruckman added. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using it as a first draft, but every point has to be verified.” 

The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind the website, is looking into building tools to make it easier for volunteers to identify bot-generated content. Meanwhile, Wikipedia is working to draft a policy that lays out the limits to how volunteers can use large language models to create content.

The current draft policy notes that anyone unfamiliar with the risks of large language models should avoid using them to create Wikipedia content, because it can open the Wikimedia Foundation up to libel suits and copyright violations—both of which the nonprofit gets protections from but the Wikipedia volunteers do not. These large language models also contain implicit biases, which often result in content skewed against marginalized and underrepresented groups of people. 

The community is also divided on whether large language models should be allowed to train on Wikipedia content. While open access is a cornerstone of Wikipedia’s design principles, some worry the unrestricted scraping of internet data allows AI companies like OpenAI to exploit the open web to create closed commercial datasets for their models. This is especially a problem if the Wikipedia content itself is AI-generated, creating a feedback loop of potentially biased information, if left unchecked…(More)”.

The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence for the Sustainable Development Goals

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Francesca Mazzi and Luciano Floridi: “Artificial intelligence (AI) as a general-purpose technology has great potential for advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the AI×SDGs phenomenon is still in its infancy in terms of diffusion, analysis, and empirical evidence. Moreover, a scalable adoption of AI solutions to advance the achievement of the SDGs requires private and public actors to engage in coordinated actions that have been analysed only partially so far. This volume provides the first overview of the AI×SDGs phenomenon and its related challenges and opportunities. The first part of the book adopts a programmatic approach, discussing AI×SDGs at a theoretical level and from the perspectives of different stakeholders. The second part illustrates existing projects and potential new applications…(More)”.

Spatial data trusts: an emerging governance framework for sharing spatial data

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Nenad Radosevic et al: “Data Trusts are an important emerging approach to enabling the much wider sharing of data from many different sources and for many different purposes, backed by the confidence of clear and unambiguous data governance. Data Trusts combine the technical infrastructure for sharing data with the governance framework of a legal trust. The concept of a data Trust applied specifically to spatial data offers significant opportunities for new and future applications, addressing some longstanding barriers to data sharing, such as location privacy and data sovereignty. This paper introduces and explores the concept of a ‘spatial data Trust’ by identifying and explaining the key functions and characteristics required to underpin a data Trust for spatial data. The work identifies five key features of spatial data Trusts that demand specific attention and connects these features to a history of relevant work in the field, including spatial data infrastructures (SDIs), location privacy, and spatial data quality. The conclusions identify several key strands of research for the future development of this rapidly emerging framework for spatial data sharing…(More)”.

From Fragmentation to Coordination: The Case for an Institutional Mechanism for Cross-Border Data Flows

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Report by the World Economic Forum: “Digital transformation of the global economy is bringing markets and people closer. Few conveniences of modern life – from international travel to online shopping to cross-border payments – would exist without the free flow of data.

Yet, impediments to free-flowing data are growing. The “Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT)” concept is based on the idea that responsible data concerns, such as privacy and security, can be addressed without obstructing international data transfers. Policy-makers, trade negotiators and regulators are actively working on this, and while important progress has been made, an effective and trusted international cooperation mechanism would amplify their progress.

This white paper makes the case for establishing such a mechanism with a permanent secretariat, starting with the Group of Seven (G7) member-countries, and ensuring participation of high-level representatives of multiple stakeholder groups, including the private sector, academia and civil society.

This new institution would go beyond short-term fixes and catalyse long-term thinking to operationalize DFFT…(More)”.

Unlocking the Power of Data Refineries for Social Impact

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Essay by Jason Saul & Kriss Deiglmeier: “In 2021, US companies generated $2.77 trillion in profits—the largest ever recorded in history. This is a significant increase since 2000 when corporate profits totaled $786 billion. Social progress, on the other hand, shows a very different picture. From 2000 to 2021, progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has been anemic, registering less than 10 percent growth over 20 years.

What explains this massive split between the corporate and the social sectors? One explanation could be the role of data. In other words, companies are benefiting from a culture of using data to make decisions. Some refer to this as the “data divide”—the increasing gap between the use of data to maximize profit and the use of data to solve social problems…

Our theory is that there is something more systemic going on. Even if nonprofit practitioners and policy makers had the budget, capacity, and cultural appetite to use data; does the data they need even exist in the form they need it? We submit that the answer to this question is a resounding no. Usable data doesn’t yet exist for the sector because the sector lacks a fully functioning data ecosystem to create, analyze, and use data at the same level of effectiveness as the commercial sector…(More)”.

The Untapped Potential of Computing and Cognition in Tackling Climate Change

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Adiba Proma, Robert Wachter and Ehsan Hoque: “Alongside the search for climate-protecting technologies like EVs, more effort needs to be directed to harnessing technology to promote climate-protecting behavior change. This will take focus, leadership, and cooperation among technologists, investors, business executives, educators, and governments. Unfortunately, such focus, leadership, and cooperation have been lacking.  

Persuading people to change their lifestyles to benefit the next generations is a significant challenge. We argue that simple changes in how technologies are built and deployed can significantly lower society’s carbon footprint. 

While it is challenging to influence human behavior, there are opportunities to offer nudges and just-in-time interventions by tweaking certain aspects of technology. For example, the “Climate Pledge Friendly” tag added to products that meet Amazon’s sustainability standards can help users identify and purchase ecofriendly products while shopping online [3]. Similarly, to help users make more ecofriendly choices while traveling, Google Flights provides information on average carbon dioxide emission for flights and Google Maps tags the “most fuel-efficient” route for vehicles. 

Computer scientists can draw on concepts from psychology, moral dilemma, and human cooperation to build technologies that can encourage people to lead ecofriendly lifestyles. Many mobile health applications have been developed to motivate people to exercise, eat a healthy diet, sleep better, and manage chronic diseases. Some apps designed to improve sleep, mental wellbeing, and calorie intake have as many as 200 million active users. The use of apps and other internet tools can be adapted to promote lifestyle changes for climate change. For example, Google Nest rewards users with a “leaf” when they meet an energy goal…(More)”.

Chandler Good Government Index

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Report by Chandler Institute of Governance (CIG): “…a polycrisis shines an intense spotlight on a government, and asks many difficult questions of it: How can a government cope with relentless change and uncertainty? How do they learn to maintain stability while adapting effectively? How can they distinguish what are the most important capabilities required, and then assess for themselves their own government’s strengths and weaknesses? The CGGI was built to help answer questions precisely like these.
Why Capabilities Matter for Managing a Polycrisis: This edition of the CGGI annual report offers a special
focus on how the pillars of good government stand together in the face of a polycrisis. Drawing on the 35 capabilities and outcomes indicators of the CGGI we examine in particular depth:
– How Public Institutions Are Better Responding to Crises. We explore how a government’s leaders, civil service and institutions come together to prepare and respond.
– Building Shared Prosperity. How are governments confronting inflation and the costof-living crisis while still creating opportunities for more efficient marketplaces that support trade and sustain good jobs? We dive into a few ways.
– Strong Nations Are Healthy and Inclusive. We spotlight how governments are building more
inclusive communities and resilient health systems…(More)”.

DMA: rules for digital gatekeepers to ensure open markets start to apply

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Press Release: “The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) applies from today. Now that the DMA applies, potential gatekeepers that meet the quantitative thresholds established have until 3 July to notify their core platform services to the Commission. ..

The DMA aims to ensure contestable and fair markets in the digital sector. It defines gatekeepers as those large online platforms that provide an important gateway between business users and consumers, whose position can grant them the power to act as a private rule maker, and thus create a bottleneck in the digital economy. To address these issues, the DMA defines a series of specific obligations that gatekeepers will need to respect, including prohibiting them from engaging in certain behaviours in a list of do’s and don’ts. More information is available in the dedicated Q&A…(More)”.

Financing the Common Good

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Mariana Mazzucato: “…The international monetary system which emerged in the aftermath of World War II undoubtedly represented an important innovation. But its structure is no longer fit for purpose. The challenges we face today—from climate change to public-health crises—are complex, interrelated and global in nature. Our financial institutions must reflect this reality.

Because the financial system echoes the logic of the entire economic system, this will require a more fundamental change: we must broaden the economic thinking that has long underpinned institutional mandates. To shape the markets of the future, maximising public value in the process, we must embrace an entirely new economics.

Most economic thinking today assigns the state and multilateral actors responsibility for removing barriers to economic activity, de-risking trade and finance and levelling the playing-field for business. As a result, governments and international lenders tinker around the edges of markets, rather than doing what is actually needed—deliberately shaping the economic and financial system to advance the common good…(More)”.