May 21, 2025

Big Data Protection

Modern privacy law is based on principles of data protection that were first articulated in the 1970s. As a result, it is based on the idea that we should collect as little data as possible to safeguard personal privacy. In the age of AI and big data, that approach is fast losing its relevance.

May 15, 2025

Verifiable Credentials

We built technology systems to enable data portability, only to realise that system-to-system integration is a non-trivial lift. A far simpler solution is to create self-custodial verifiable credentials that are capable of being verified without relying on their issuers.

May 10, 2025

De-Extinction

The recent advances in de-extinction technology offer hope for endangered species. But before we leap to deploy these technologies we should consider the legal and ethical consequences of what we are about to unleash.

April 30, 2025

Bias is Good

We have been trained to think that all bias is bad. And that we should do all we can to rid ourselves of it to avoid being unfair. What we often fail to realise is that bias is a shortcut that allows us to cut through the noise and zero in on the data we need to process.

April 24, 2025

Enhanced Geothermal

If India is to achieve its data centre ambitions, it needs to find new sources of efficient power. While nuclear is a solution, it will take too long to come on stream. We need alternatives, and enhanced geothermal might just be it.

April 10, 2025

Possible Futures

There are many possible futures for AI. Even if we cannot predict exactly which path it will take, as long as we remain clear-eyed about the possible consequences of the actions we take today, we will be able to mitigate the outcomes that could result over the next few years.

April 3, 2025

DPI Thinking for COP30

The climate consensus is rapidly unravelling. With the developing world consistently failing to make the level of commitment required to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, we need to think differently about achieving sustainable development. Could we apply DPI Thinking to this problem?

March 26, 2025

Transparent Take Down

Content moderation is a wicked problem - that calls on us to balance the fundamental right to speech and expression with the need to prevent the spread of harmful content. This is a delicate balance that we need to strike with careful attention to constitutional principles.

March 19, 2025

The Cost of Cold

All we need to do to address our food insecurity is learn to better preserve food after it has been harvested. However, the technology we rely on to do that comes at a great cost. We need to find an alternative approach - one that prevents spoilage without harming the environment.

March 13, 2025

Assembly Theory

The challenge with regulating technology is that laws always lag behind the technologies they regulate. One way to address this is to adopt a philosophy of incremental regulation that follows in lockstep with technological evolution. This requires a theoretical understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of technology.