The tech ecosystem, as it is today, is shaped by concentrated power. The natural monopolies of the telecommunications sectors were not, in fact, disrupted when networked computation was commercialized, and when the internet took shape in the late 1990s. Big Tech simply replicated this monopolistic form, acquiring data and infrastructural monopolies via the surveillance business model, which incentivized mass surveillance and profiling, and the growth-at-all-costs mindset that has got us where we are today.
This concentrated tech power resides in the hands of a handful of corporations, primarily Big Tech companies, which are based in the US and China. As they extend their reach and authority on the wings of the current AI hype, they are shaping an ecosystem that is increasingly hostile to new entrants and small players. Indeed, most startups or small tech endeavors must, in order to function, license infrastructures and use frameworks and libraries controlled and shaped by these large companies.
So, how can organizations like Signal confront and deal with mass surveillance of this industry, sustain and grow in this environment? The President of Signal Foundation and renowned AI scholar, Meredith Whittaker, along with members of the Signal team, discuss the approaches that Signal has adopted in pushing back against the conjoined threats of mass surveillance and enhanced social control of the AI hype wave.
More at has.gy/EoSF