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When the UN created a statistical commission in 1946, the world still recovered from the devastation of the Second World War. Then there was a broad consensus that only reliable, internationally comparable data could prevent conflicts, combating poverty and global anchor cooperation. Almost 80 years later, this insight stays just as relevant, however the context has modified dramatically.
The world is now facing geopolitical and environmental crises in addition to a profound digital transformation. Data has change into a strategic capital. Check today means influence on the long run. The rapid increase in AI, which is driven by huge amounts of knowledge, the UN represents a discouraging challenge: Those who control data today will affect AI tomorrow – and thus the stories that outline public life. If the influence of business platforms and algorithmic systems grows, public institutions fall back. National statistical offices – the backbone of independent data production – are under strong financial pressure.
This erosion of institutional capability couldn’t come at a more critical time. The United Nations cannot react sufficiently since it is exposed to an absence of staff. Due to the continuing austerity measures on the United Nations, many leading positions remain free, and the director of the UN statistics department has retired without the successor being appointed. This is finished at a time when a newly planned trustworthy data observatory-drunk is required to make official statistics accessible and machine reactible.
In the meantime, the chance of targeted disinformation is growing. Distorted or manipulated content is spreading at social media at unprecedented speed. Estimating tools similar to AI chatbots tighten the issue. These systems depend on web content, not on verified data and usually are not created in such a way that they separate the reality from falsehood. If the matter gets worse, many governments cannot currently make their data usable for AI, since they usually are not standardized, not machine -readable or not openly accessible. The room for sober, evidence -based discourse shrinks.
This trend undermines confidence in public trust in institutions, strips the political design of its legitimacy and endangers the UN goals for sustainable development (SDGS). Governments fly blindly without reliable data – or worse: they’re deliberately misled.
If countries lose control of their very own data or they can’t integrate into global decision -making processes, they change into the encompassing of their very own development. Decisions about their economies, corporations and environments are then outsourced to AI systems which might be trained on distorted, non -representative data. The global south is especially in danger because many countries don’t have any access to quality data infrastructures. In countries similar to Ethiopia, information that just isn’t as much as exist that spread rapidly on social media has fueled violence powered by misinformations.
The Covid 19 pandemic showed that strong data systems enable a greater crisis response. To counteract these risks, the creation of a world Trustworthy data observatory (Tdo) is important. This un-coordinated, democratically ruled platform would help to catalog catalog and to enable trustworthy data all around the world-and at the identical time to totally respect national sovereignty.
It would organize a world metadata catalog, a special search engine that indicates which data is out there, where it’s saved, the way it was collected and the way reliable they’re. It is crucial that the raw data stays under the control of its national manufacturers and be sure that high-quality data will be used transparently, interoperable and in AI. The TDO would support trust where there are doubts today.
History showed us the implications of neglecting public interest in digital spaces. A small variety of technology corporations now dominate huge parts of the digital infrastructure, control data flows and forms the general public discourse on a scale. We must not repeat these errors with AI and data.
Data is probably not treated because the only property of the few. It is a world public asset, and the UN has to arise as a steward – in order that residents, institutions and governments could make decisions which might be based on trustworthy, inclusive data. The achievement of this vision requires political will, investments in institutional and technical skills and recent partnerships between governments, science, civil society and the private sector.
A recently carried out UN conference recognized that top quality data and statistics enable evidence -based political decisions and improve the accountability and transparency. But measures must follow: The way forward for democracy, development and peace depends upon whether we give attention to trustworthy data at the middle of worldwide government.
