Big Tech platforms are deepening their digital monopoly based on capital, data, high-end manpower, and large-scale customer access (PC and mobile apps). As a result, the polarization of small and medium-sized businesses such as winner-take-all, data monopoly, and excessive fees has become an issue at home and abroad. This is a new aspect of social problems that emerged with the digital divide issue in the era of digital transformation.
The goal of Yoon Suk-yeol Administration's ‘Digital Platform Government’ is to connect all data and encourage people, companies, and the government to work together to solve social problems and create new values on the basis of such connection. Rather than directly providing services, the government is advocating the creation of an innovative ecosystem where the private sector brings about the innovation and the public sector supports it for the private and public to grow together. In this respect, it is urgent to come up with a plan to solve the ‘New Digital Polarization’ in various ways.
“ICEC (International Conference of Electronic Commerce) 2022” was recently held. Here, the announcement of the theme of ‘Artificial Intelligence Sharing without Sharing Data’ drew attention. The key phrase ‘AI Sharing,’ which is relatively new, is not about sharing data between subjects. Rather, it is a new platform concept to share artificial intelligence’s learning results and their derivative services.
Valuable data is an asset that belongs to individuals and businesses. Therefore, even if small business owners and small and medium-sized businesses secure digital and AI technology capabilities, collecting data for AI services is not as easy as it sounds. The ‘AI Sharing Platform' is not about data sharing, but about AI Sharing. Since data owned by each participant is not shared, it is free from data ownership and personal information issues.
All platform participants can share customer contact points and expand product services through the combination of AI. Small and medium-sized businesses that do not have AI technology capabilities can also increase customer contact points, utilize Hyper-Personalized Recommendation Services, and target marketing solely by sharing AI. Business competitiveness can be strengthened with services that were previously impossible for individual business owners to provide. This is the User Centric ‘AI Sharing Platform’.
The ‘AI Sharing Platform’ may be an alternative to solving the problem of social polarization caused by platform monopoly, because small business owners and small and medium-sized businesses can platformize with their own brands by taking advantage of the sharing platform at a low cost without the expense and risk of building a separate system. Of course, prerequisites such as social consensus for the 'AI Sharing Platform' and establishment of governance for technical standardization for the use of AI in data will be necessary.
‘AI Sharing’ is expected to break the existing framework and create new values for another AI revolution. Digital innovation technology is characterized by interconnection, convergence, and diffusion of synergy. In the New Normal Era, User Centric ‘AI Sharing’, which makes it possible for everyone to benefit from digital and AI technology, is expected to surpass Big Tech as an appropriate solution to digital polarization.
Original Source: Reproduced from the Korean version of the Maeil Business Newspaper on July 7, 2022.
