A group of economists and technologists, including virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier, have proposed a radical new market, one where users—the generators of the data that tech firms are using to develop AI—retain the ownership of that data, and thus retain the value of that data for themselves. The group refers to this condition as “data as labor,” as opposed to our current condition where “data is capital.”

As artificial intelligence is poised to take away more and more human jobs, one response is the establishment of a universal basic income. But another response to the social and economic dislocation that AI might unleash is the creation of a labor market for data, where we are compensated for our online activities, compensated for the data we emit as a by-product of those activities. In a sense, in such a world with a data-as-labor market, my “job” becomes data production.

Scheduled Meetings for 2017-18  (all meetings meet 6:30-8:00pm at the Panera Bread Co. community room, 875 Bethel Road):  (Also be sure to check out – and like –  “Columbus Futurists” on Facebook!)

• May 24, 2018 – Topic: The Future of Global Pandemic
• June 21, 2018 – Topic: Air Force Science & Technology 2030
• July 26, 2018 – Topic: China’s Social Ranking System
• August 23, 2018 – Topic: Data as Labor
• September 20, 2018 – Topic: The Modern Workforce is Freelance
• October 25, 2018 – Topic: Can Smart Cities be Equitable?
• November 15, 2018 – Topic: Finally: Flying Cars
• December 2018 – No meeting