Drawing upon theories of value chain governance and co-governance as well as lessons learned from AI governance initiatives in the European Union and United States, this article identifies three opportunities for strengthening Canadian AI regulation. Canada should widen the scope of societal and environmental impacts that fall within its approach to regulating “AI value chains”, develop more application-specific and sector-specific AI policies, and make greater efforts to promote public participation and collaboration on AI governance across governments, departments, sectors, and civil society.

Geoffrey Hinton spent half a century developing artificial intelligence. Now, he worries that his life’s work could spell the end of humanity. This piece details his mission to warn the world.

City governance is increasingly confronting the question of urban data control, as technology companies access valuable urban data from key physical and digital city sites. Understanding the strategies cities use to counteract corporate control of this data is crucial. The 'New Data Deal' program in Barcelona offers a suitable case study. This research includes firsthand experiences, interviews with key actors, and policy documents to examine the successes and challenges of a city striving to reclaim urban data control, while also contemplating the role of city governments in data governance.

An exclusive focus on data as an economic commodity only leads to increased data production, neglecting other societal objectives, thereby challenging prevalent beliefs in literature and policy. This paper asserts that data governance is a distraction from broader digital issues and calls for a shift from data-centric economic models. The paper also critically analyzes the idea of data commons and proposes a political-ecological approach, characterized by the recognition of the political aspect of problem framing and mapping their ecological composition.

Exploring the representation and engagement of democratic values in Australia's alt-tech far-right communities, this study employs polyarchal democracy as an analytical lens to evaluate social media data from the 2022 federal election. Analysis reveals that these communities tend to acknowledge and uphold the processes and values of democracy, albeit not all. The examination underscores the necessity of comprehending these discourses to protect liberal democracy amidst the growing wave of illiberalism.

Examining how machine learning technologies can amplify existing social inequalities. The speakers highlight four pathways through which this can occur: biases in the underlying data, misaligned data use, optimization of algorithms for biased goals, and disproportionate application of these technologies upon marginalized groups. They underscore the need for sociologists to investigate these technologies, and the inequalities they reproduce.

This book takes the focus off Silicon Valley moguls to investigate the price we pay as technology migrates deeper into every aspect of our lives: entering our bedrooms and our bathrooms and our midnight texts; our relationships with friends, family, lovers, and kids; and even our relationship with ourselves. Exploring why the law has struggled to keep up, the book reveals how our current system leaves victims—particularly women, LGBTQ+ people, and marginalized groups—shamed and powerless while perpetrators profit, warping cultural norms around the world.

Our personal data is the defining resource of the emerging digital economy, and it is increasingly concentrated in a few data enclaves controlled by Big Tech firms, cementing an increasingly parasitic form of technoscientific innovation. Big Tech controls access to these data, dictates the terms of our use of their services and products, and controls the future development of key technologies. This book rethinks our political and policy approach to data governance and to do so requires unpacking the peculiarities of personal data and how personal data are transformed into a valuable asset.

Digital capitalism developed in the US in the crucible of World War II. Momentum came from high-tech weaponry, led by radar, early computing machines, and atomic bombs; and from the global war’s acceleration of information-processing demands for logistics. With the erection of a permanent US war economy to support US global power during the battles against socialism and radical nationalism that followed, a new political-economic formation began to emerge.

Exploring the connection between technology and human rights, advocating for a slower pace of technological development. Technology design should favor communication over data extraction, embrace the ambiguity of data interpretation, and encourage ground-up criticism. This paper stresses the importance of recognizing the challenges and privileges of data interpretation and encourage mindful data creation that nurtures communities. The paper's insights challenge the technological status quo, promoting a vision of data, platforms, and intelligent systems that align with pluralism and solidarity.