As we reach the end of the calendar year, it is easy to look back at the past 12 months and conclude that 2023 was enlightening, teaching us the polarising reality of how advanced technology is and how far behind governmental legislation is.
It started in February when Tony Blair announced a push on digital IDs, it continued with Geoffrey Hinton quitting his job at Google in spring due to unanswered moral questions; by May, Elon Musk received US approval for Neuralink – a brain chip project scheduled for release in the next 5 years. We then saw the emergence of deep fakes, and as a university, it was time to ask ourselves what the consequences of novel technology and slow geopolitical decisions are, in the realm of research data and intellectual property.
While legislation such as Data Protection and cyber security training remain strong in the UK and Europe, the truth is that there is no GDPR equivalent on a federal level in the US; and although China’s PIPL shares similarities with our continent’s Data Protection Act, the two do not overlap completely. This is indispensable news for researchers, suggesting that they need to be careful and familiar with the different foreign regulations before they store information in a cloud-based system. Failure to do so could lead to having one’s academic research stolen, sold, misused.
One solution could be a university-governed system, where IT department monitors and ensures high – level cyber security. Another opportunity for resolution hides in the expensive realm of decentralization – an untested populist buzzword – where each institution would need to own its cloud system.
In Europe, legislation is headed in the right direction with the creation of GDPR in 2016. However, even though the continent leads the way and sets an example, governmental decisions are still slow and limited. Meanwhile, as technological developments rush ahead like a bullet train, universities across the country are left with the earnest task of supplying quick and adequate solutions. Hence, in January 2024 Queen Mary prepares to issue new policies and procedures for storing cloud-based data and terms of usage. This is the correct and pivotal step forward in a direction aimed at ensuring the intellectual and research safety of our academics.
Secondary sources:
1. BBC, 2023, “Tony Blair and William Hague call for digital ID cards for all”, source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64729442
2. The Guardian, 2023, “Elon Musk’s Neuralink approved to recruit humans for brain-implant trial”, source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/19/elon-musk-neuralink-human-trials-brain-implant
3. The New York Times, 2023, “‘The Godfather of A.I.’ Leaves Google and Warns of Danger Ahead”, source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/technology/ai-google-chatbot-engineer-quits-hinton.html