The Conversation AI

The big AI companies have already siphoned up the bulk of what’s to be had in the way of data from the internet. This publicly available data is easy to acquire but a mixed bag in terms of quality. If data is the fuel of AI, the holy grail for a big tech company is tapping into a new reserve of high quality data, especially if you have exclusive access. That reserve of data is collected – and guarded – by government agencies.

Government databases capture real decisions and their consequences and contain verified records of actual human behavior across entire populations over time, writes Middlebury public policy expert Allison Stanger.

“Unlike the disordered information available online, government records follow standardized protocols, undergo regular audits and must meet legal requirements for accuracy,” she writes. “For companies seeking to build next-generation AI systems, access to this data would create an almost insurmountable advantage.”

The threat of a company putting its AI model on steroids with government data goes beyond unfair competition and even individual privacy concerns, writes Stanger. Such a model would give the company that wields it extraordinary power to predict and influence the behavior of populations.

This threat is more than just a thought exercise. Elon Musk is at the helm of both the Department of Government Efficiency, which has unprecedented access to U.S. government data, and the AI company xAI. The Trump administration has stated that Musk is not using the data for his company, but the temptation to do so must be quite strong.