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Ensuring Credibility in Digital Technology

Professor Dirk Helbing of ETH Zurich and Austria’s Complexity Science Hub expects future digital technologies to penetrate the human body even more in the future. However, he believes that society is not prepared for the risks involved. In a new article, he puts forward a new legal framework to protect our most intimate data from misuse.

The work is published in the journal Ethics and Information Technology.

“In my research, I deal with the consequences of digitalization for people, society, and democracy. In this context, it is also important to keep an eye on the convergence in the computer and life sciences—i.e., on what becomes possible when digital technologies increasingly grow together with biotechnology, neurotechnology, and nanotechnology,” says Prof. Helbing.

“Converging technologies are seen as a breeding ground for far-reaching innovations. However, they are increasingly blurring the boundaries between the physical, biological, and digital worlds. As a result, conventional regulations become ineffective. In a joint study together with my co-author Marcello Ienca, we have recently examined the risks and societal challenges of technological convergence—and concluded that the effects for individuals and society are far-reaching.”

“We would like to draw attention to the challenges and risks of converging technologies and explain why we consider it necessary to accompany technological developments internationally with strong regulation.”

“For several years now, in the context of digitalization, everyone could observe the consequences of leaving technological change to market forces alone without effective regulation.”

Misinformation and manipulation on the web

Prof. Helbing continues, “In 2015, almost ten years ago, the Digital Manifesto was published. One of us and eight other European experts issued an urgent warning against scoring, i.e., the evaluation of people, and against big nudging, a subtle form of digital manipulation. The latter is based on personality profiles that are created using cookies and other surveillance data.”

“A little later, the Cambridge Analytica scandal alerted the world of how the data analysis company tried to manipulate voting behavior in democratic elections using personalized ads (microtargeting).

“By now, democracies around the world are under great pressure. Propaganda, fake news, and hate speech are polarizing and sowing doubt, while privacy is dwindling. We are in a kind of international information war for our minds, in which advertising companies, tech corporations, secret services, and the military are fighting for influence over our thinking and behavior. Meanwhile, the European Union adopted the AI Act in an attempt to curb the aforementioned dangers.

“However, digital technologies have developed at a breathtaking pace, and new possibilities for manipulation are already emerging. Because when digital and nanotechnology merge with modern biotechnology and neurotechnology, revolutionary applications become possible that were hardly imaginable before.”