Do not let mind-reading AI violate our cognitive liberty

As regular readers of Ex Machina know, I have been waiting more than a decade for India to pass a comprehensive data protection law.

- RAHUL MATTHAN

Despite recent statements by the government suggesting that rules under the 2023 Digital Personal Data Protection law are imminent, I have heard these promises so many times over the years that I have resigned myself to only believing it when I see it.

Meanwhile, technology has evolved at a blistering pace. When I first started working on a data protection law, I thought a notice and consent regime would be enough. I was convinced that so long as we offered individuals a meaningful way to exercise control over what was done with their data, they would have all the protection they needed. But with the advent of Big Data, it was clear that traditional notions of notice and consent were becoming increasingly meaningless. Not only was data being collected in so many different ways and by so many different entities that it had become impossible to keep track of, the ways in which this data was being used had become so complex that even the most digitally savvy among us were hard pressed to appreciate the consequences of our decisions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has made things worse. Scant heed was paid to the data protection principles of prior consent and specific use when powerful AI systems were built. What's more, since our interaction with AI systems takes place through chat interfaces, this has encouraged a level of intimacy that makes it easier for us to share more than we otherwise would, with little thought given to the consequences. But as bad as things are, they are about to get worse.

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