The erosion of public space in the platform society

From data colonialism to generative artificial intelligence

Abstract

In the decades between the 20th and 21st centuries, the transition took place from the networked society based on the Internet as an open technology, to the current platform society whose services are provided almost exclusively by very few large private companies. We are living today in the dawn of data colonialism, a phenomenon far more pervasive than the simple issue of Big Tech’s appropriation of personal data. In fact, despite the widespread metaphor of data as “new oil”, the data collected and transformed into wealth by platforms are not natural resources, but are instead actively constructed and pre-structured by the platforms themselves according to opaque and non-transparent logic. In the context of this discussion, we also focus on generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), defining it and outlining its capabilities. The generative AI tools currently available are also privately owned and opaque in their operation, following instructions, rules and limits that are protected by industrial secrecy and which the community cannot know in detail. Alongside unprecedented potential and opportunities that must be recognized, in the contemporary digital scenario there is therefore the risk of a progressive erosion of the public space for discussion and comparison, limited upstream by rules of the game decided on a table at which citizens and civil society cannot sit.