No technology is an island

No technology is an island. John Donne wrote this about humans in 1624. For inanimate and prosaic technologies this didn’t hold true until recently. Each technology was an island. Unconnected and independent.

The technology that built a product in a factory had little or no connection to the transportation technology that shipped it to the markets. A service offering was perishable with no trace left behind except for the experience of the people who delivered.

It is not the same now. No technology is an island.

But this applies well to the fourth industrial revolution technologies (4IR) like the Internet of Things (IOT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and even 3D printing.

In the cyber-physical manufacturing system, each component of a product being built carries its own information and communicates with the entire production system. So, the many thousands of components of a vehicle will be connected through sensors. Such an activity will generate lots of data in real time. That information would amount to big data and need analytics for performance management. The patterns that the data shows up may require to be studied and assessed by Artificial Intelligence for improved performance solutions.

Similar situation can arise around precision medicines. A patient can swallow a medicine that includes nano-robots. These will heal the body but also send information about the ailment and recovery for data analysis. These would again be assessed through a self-driven machine-learning programme that can resolve complex problems.

These developments are impacting developed and developing nations at the same time. The world though it not ready for it. Not Europe. Not US. Not countries like India, China and Japan in Asia.

At the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) India Summit this week, I caught up with Murat Sonmez to talk about how countries must prepare for 4IR. Based in San Francisco, the Turkey-born Sonmez heads WEF’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “Technology and information is growing fast, policy is not,” says Sonmez.

There are several issues challenging policymakers, industry leaders and technology developers. Chief among them is the need for creating common protocols for data security, ownership and authentication. “When machines write algorithms, humans will have to ask and ensure that they know the source code. If they don’t, humans will be shut out,” says Sonmez. That’s when the dystopian vision of machines taking over begins.

When drones, autonomous vehicles and precision medicines become commonplace, they will have to be interoperable too. Not just between technology creators and users but between countries too. Data flows across boundaries will need rules that safeguard information without interrupting collaboration or commerce.

The 4IR Centre is running nine such pilot projects in a unique collaborative effort between companies and countries. Salesforce, Microsoft Corp, ABB along with bodies like American Heart Association are exploring projects in IoT, blockchain, autonomous vehicles, digital trade and drones. These projects will be run in partner countries like Japan, Bahrain and Rwanda. Says Sonmez, “We are a safe space for experimentation.”

This safe place is important. With distrust between countries being heightened by protectionist sentiments, there is an urgent need for a space wherein countries can collaborate with companies and research bodies for the larger human good. Preparing for 4IR will need continued partnerships especially when civil society is getting restive about the negative impact of technologies.

At a session on 4IR at the WEF India summit in New Delhi, participants were asked to connect technologies with issues. In an exercise, they were asked to identify the potential disruptive impact of technologies on society. Do technologies have the potential of harming social inclusion, environmental sustainability and civic values?

The participants who included representatives from voluntary organisations, technology companies and businesses were clear that much harm could happen. Destruction of jobs by automation is much spoken of, but there are other issues of privacy, natural resource security and healthcare that need to be addressed with a multi-stakeholder approach.

“We need human-centred solutions,” says Sonmez. Not solutions driven for stock markets and investors. WEF offered its support for technology-led innovations in agriculture with initiatives that involve 12 state governments, central ministries, private corporations and experts. The primacy care coalition will build on digital initiatives for a pilot project in Kulu District of Himachal Pradesh.

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal said, “Business has to be force for good.” Companies can’t grow if societies are lagging. This realisation is important at a time when competition is forcing the adoption of technology at the cost of human labour. India needs three I’s he said. These are internationalization, innovation and inclusiveness. Railways Minister Piyush Goyal was clear that 4IR technologies like 3D printing and Artificial Intelligence could empower young entrepreneurs to be job creators.

For these ideas to succeed, India must participate in the global effort to create protocols for the new technologies. Policymakers have no time to lose and must join global efforts for a common cause. India and the world are increasingly interdependent with technology platforms. No technology is an island.

The author is an economic analyst and author of Kranti Nation: India and The Fourth Industrial Revolution