The Endless Spring of Our Village
Imagine a long time ago in a village, a mysterious spring emerged that granted wisdom and healed ailments. At first, everyone freely drank from the spring and enjoyed abundance. But one day, the strongest giant appeared and built a massive castle wall around the spring, proclaiming, “This spring is now mine! Pay me if you need water!”
In the 21st century, ‘data’ is just like this mysterious spring. Especially, the heart of the artificial intelligence (AI) that is changing the world today is this spring of data. However, this immense resource is now perfectly trapped within the castle walls of a few giants—large tech companies and certain nations.
Today, I will closely examine the faces of these giants and explain, through specific stories, how we are suffering under the walls they have built and why we must open the waterway of data.
1. Portraits of the Lords of the Castle: How Do Giants Rule the World?
The castle of giants is not a single form. Each rules data in different ways and territories, building their own AI empires. Let’s sketch their portraits.
Lord 1: ‘The All-Knowing Sage’ Google
Google knows everything about us. It knows what we are curious about (search), who we talk to (Gmail), where we are heading (maps), and even our health status (healthcare). This vast ’life data’ has made Google’s AI ‘Gemini’ the most knowledgeable sage in the world. Its ability to predict answers before we even ask and to show ads tailored to our preferences comes from this monopolized data spring.
Lord 2: ‘The Ruler of Relationships and Desires’ Meta
Meta (Facebook, Instagram) governs our ‘relationships’ and ‘desires.’ It holds the map of all our emotions—who we like, what we are passionate about, and what makes us angry. This ’emotional data’ is the core ingredient of recommendation algorithms that keep people glued to their screens and the secret weapon that makes their AI ‘Llama’ more human-like.
Lord 3: ‘The King of the Closed Kingdom’ Apple
Apple boasts a high wall of ‘privacy.’ It claims, “Your information is safe within your device.” However, everything that happens within that kingdom—app store payments, Apple Music listening history, questions asked to Siri—is under the king’s control. Apple does not sell ads, but it uses this high-quality ’ecosystem data’ to make Siri smarter and to further lock down the Apple ecosystem.
Lord 4: ‘The Rising Sorcerer’ OpenAI
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is a new type of giant. Initially, it swept up all the books from the communal library of the internet to teach its AI. But now, its most powerful magic comes from us. Every conversation and question correction shared by millions of users worldwide serves as the best training material for OpenAI’s AI in real-time. We have become ‘unpaid AI trainers,’ training the giant’s sorcerer for free or for a fee.
And, ‘The Great Dragon’ China
China is the giant itself, a massive dragon of a nation. With facial recognition data from 1.4 billion people, CCTV across cities, social media censorship, and data from giant companies like Alibaba and Tencent, the state pours it all into one massive crucible. This ’national data’ becomes a weapon to strengthen social control systems and challenge the technological hegemony of the United States.
2. The Invisible Damage: The Scars Left by Data Monopolization
Yes, these giants are indeed creating remarkable AIs. You might ask, “So what’s the problem?” However, beneath those splendid castle walls, invisible scars are festering in the lives of ordinary people. Let me share two specific stories.
Story One: The AI That Stole My Art
Here is an illustrator named ‘Suji,’ who has just begun to gain popularity on social media with her unique art style. She has consistently posted her work on Instagram (Meta’s territory) and her personal portfolio site (Google’s search target) for years. One day, Suji discovers a shocking fact. When she inputs “draw in Suji’s style” into an AI image generator, images almost identical to her style pour out in just a few seconds. The giants have trained their AI by scraping her data without her permission, and now people can create ‘Suji-style’ images for just a few cents. The data filled with Suji’s blood and sweat has turned into a knife that takes away her job.
Story Two: My Dream Rejected by AI
‘Minjun,’ a young man who diligently worked while dreaming of starting his own business, sought a bank loan for startup capital. However, the bank’s AI loan assessment system classified him as ‘high risk’ and denied his loan. He could not understand why. In fact, the bank’s AI learned from past loan data, which contained societal biases indicating that ‘certain regions’ or ‘certain school graduates’ had high default rates. Minjun became a victim of the biased data learned by the AI, unable to take even the first step toward his dream, regardless of his personal creditworthiness.
3. The Real Reason We Must Open the Gates
The stories of Suji and Minjun are no longer someone else’s issues. This is the urgent reason we must open the gates of ‘open data.’ It is not merely a noble movement to ‘share data,’ but a survival strategy to protect all our lives.
In the Middle Ages, all knowledge was locked away in monastery libraries, accessible only to a few monks. Then, the innovation of ‘printing’ opened knowledge to everyone, leading to the explosion of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution.
‘Open data’ is the printing press of the 21st century.
- To protect ‘Suji’: We must clarify the sources of data through open data and create rules that allow creators to refuse the use of their data in AI training or receive fair compensation.
- To save ‘Minjun’: When diverse background data is made public and shared, we can finally correct AI biases and create fairer judgment systems.
- For true innovation: When everyone is given access to the printing press, countless small Gutenbergs will emerge, blooming customized AIs that solve humanity’s challenges in fields like healthcare, education, and the environment.
4. The ‘Data Library’ Opening the Future
Of course, this does not mean we should indiscriminately release all data into the streets. Therefore, we need a smart ‘data library’ system. Sensitive personal information must be thoroughly protected, data quality must be managed, and anyone—students, researchers, startups—should be able to borrow data under fair rules to create new value.
Again, the Spring Water for Everyone
The giants’ castle walls may seem high and sturdy. However, history always shows that knowledge and power, once monopolized by a few, eventually flow toward the many.
Data is not the spoils of giants; it is a legacy created by all of us together. Bringing this precious legacy back into our hands to open AI for everyone, innovation for everyone, and a better future for everyone—that is the true goal of the ‘open data revolution.’ It is time to return the mysterious spring water to everyone.