Equitable Data Governance In The Age Of Al: A Data Justice Perspective

Dominant approaches to governing advanced data-driven systems, like Artificial Intelligence (AI), adopt a negative regulatory perspective: they focus on preventing first- generation rights violations – particularly those of privacy and security – through a compliance and penalty regime. Although necessary, this approach alone cannot produce just results. Rather, a data justice approach to the regulation of data-driven systems is necessary to arrest the perpetuation of injustice and historical inequalities present in the data itself. Applied in the context of economics, a data justice approach provides a rationale for positive discrimination to deal with the differential impact of harms and the uneven distribution of opportunities associated with data-driven technologies. This brief assesses regulations for equitable data value creation, both private and public, with a focus on Al. Drawing on scholars like Diane Coyle, for governing data for broad economic benefit and social well-being, and Brett Frichmann, to discuss the economic characteristics of data, the brief will analyse effective data governance that is needed for fairness in availability, accessibility, usability, and integrity of data in this context, also addressing ownership concentration and its effects on trade and competition.