Shalini Verma :
Last month, a Dubai resident returned to the city to discover that a million dollars had been wiped out of his bank account through a SIM card scam. A chilling tale of how vulnerable we are to cyber threats. Today, technology is completely embedded in every aspect of our lives. Yet, the more apps and devices we use, the less we know about their workings. The biggest risk is ceding control of our lives to Big Tech – the likes of Google, Apple, Amazon. We are sifting through so many versions of truth about these platforms that it is hard to tell the real from the imagined.
A recent report from a cyber security company reveals that criminals can sell our personal data amounting to our entire digital life for as little as $50. The only way individuals can deal with this organised crime is by increasing their security awareness. The US Congressional hearings with Big Tech leaders such as Sundar Pichai, Jack Dorsey, and Mark Zuckerberg, revealed the depth of ignorance among senators about technologies that have already matured.
Policy makers and legislators should first learn about technologies before they can start to effectively regulate it in a nuanced manner. Is there any wonder that the UAE has appointed a Minister for Artificial Intelligence? Some countries are training their entire population to gain a competitive edge. Finland has a nationwide programme to educate citizens on Artificial Intelligence through online courses designed for the non-IT populace. The Scandinavian government is preparing the country to compete with China and US for building practical applications of AI. These competencies will allow its citizens to also weigh in on AI policy making.
From prehistoric times, we have used our versatile abilities to survive and thrive through ecological disruptions. Paleoanthropologists believe that our forefathers survived where their distant cousins the Neanderthals did not, largely because the Homo Sapiens were generalist specialists, who could adapt to and specialise in living in extremely different habitats. Specialist species became extinct as their unique habitats were destroyed.
Fast forward to the 21st century; almost all professional fields require us to be specialists. Doctors even need to be super specialists to adapt to an ever changing medical landscape. While presenting my views at an event for doctors and surgeons, I wondered why an august gathering of medical specialists had so much interest in information technology. Evidently, they recognised the need to understand and adapt to a digital world. The Renaissance Age was replete with successful polymaths who had expertise in wildly different fields such as art, science, literature, architecture and philosophy.
(Shalini Verma is the CEO of PIVOT Technologies).
Last month, a Dubai resident returned to the city to discover that a million dollars had been wiped out of his bank account through a SIM card scam. A chilling tale of how vulnerable we are to cyber threats. Today, technology is completely embedded in every aspect of our lives. Yet, the more apps and devices we use, the less we know about their workings. The biggest risk is ceding control of our lives to Big Tech – the likes of Google, Apple, Amazon. We are sifting through so many versions of truth about these platforms that it is hard to tell the real from the imagined.
A recent report from a cyber security company reveals that criminals can sell our personal data amounting to our entire digital life for as little as $50. The only way individuals can deal with this organised crime is by increasing their security awareness. The US Congressional hearings with Big Tech leaders such as Sundar Pichai, Jack Dorsey, and Mark Zuckerberg, revealed the depth of ignorance among senators about technologies that have already matured.
Policy makers and legislators should first learn about technologies before they can start to effectively regulate it in a nuanced manner. Is there any wonder that the UAE has appointed a Minister for Artificial Intelligence? Some countries are training their entire population to gain a competitive edge. Finland has a nationwide programme to educate citizens on Artificial Intelligence through online courses designed for the non-IT populace. The Scandinavian government is preparing the country to compete with China and US for building practical applications of AI. These competencies will allow its citizens to also weigh in on AI policy making.
From prehistoric times, we have used our versatile abilities to survive and thrive through ecological disruptions. Paleoanthropologists believe that our forefathers survived where their distant cousins the Neanderthals did not, largely because the Homo Sapiens were generalist specialists, who could adapt to and specialise in living in extremely different habitats. Specialist species became extinct as their unique habitats were destroyed.
Fast forward to the 21st century; almost all professional fields require us to be specialists. Doctors even need to be super specialists to adapt to an ever changing medical landscape. While presenting my views at an event for doctors and surgeons, I wondered why an august gathering of medical specialists had so much interest in information technology. Evidently, they recognised the need to understand and adapt to a digital world. The Renaissance Age was replete with successful polymaths who had expertise in wildly different fields such as art, science, literature, architecture and philosophy.
(Shalini Verma is the CEO of PIVOT Technologies).
