[Applause]
my talk this afternoon is very much
motivated by topics that have dominated
so many headlines and also topics of so
many talks conferences seminars for
including of course this one the first I
think you've heard a lot this morning
and also this afternoon about digital
disruption something that we are all
having to live with something that has
transformed our lives transformed the
way we do things transform our
relationships with other people
transform our relationships with
organizations and our place in society
but the other topic that has dominated
so many headlines and I think it's now
dominating very much the topic of
political dialogue is the issue of
inequality we live in an age where there
now appears to be unprecedented level of
inequality whether you measure it from
the point of view of wealth income
disparities between urban areas rural
areas geographical disparity and so on
and this inequality is obviously
creating tensions conflicts and could
very much lead many societies and
countries into a full-blown political
economic or social crisis indeed I think
for the first time in number of decades
the market system or the capitalist
system is now being questioned whether
it is able to deliver the good life for
ordinary people and the issue of
inequality is something that now is
giving rise to the search for maybe even
alternative models or systems of
development 20-30 years ago who would
have thought that people will begin to
talk about the ideals of socialism again
but it is now here today dominating the
political dialogue in so many countries
simply because the degree of inequality
has risen very fast that's why I decided
why don't we try to make technology a
tool to solve the
problem of inequality make technology
egalitarian my focusing in particular on
this issue of Technology and
egalitarianism because I believe that we
are now we are now living in age where
we have unprecedented tools the
technology has created so many tools at
our disposal can we use these tools to
achieve a more equal society a better
society for everybody now obviously
there are a number of opportunities that
are already being explored and exploited
that will help reduce the problem of
inequality so for instance in the area
of health we know that technology has
now opened up so many possibilities in
bringing better healthcare maybe to more
remote areas having technology that will
be able to respond better to the health
needs of people even to identify
problems and using data and algorithm
perhaps to prevent outbreak of diseases
and so on just to give you a quick
picture of what's going on say in
Thailand now with all the health tech
companies or startups clearly all of
these companies trying to respond to
some of the health needs in the various
areas of our society in the area of the
economy and if you think in particular
of the rural economy because usually
certainly in Thailand we have always
found that rural income farmers income
are always the lowest in our society
again we now have technology that will
help our farmers there are so many
projects now under the heading of smart
farmer so they can deal with the risk
say from the unpredictable weather that
can improve upon the quality of the soil
access to water maybe creating value
from their products likewise in the
industrial and
services sector technology is opening up
opportunities also for small and medium
enterprises in the area of education
again we've heard a number of
initiatives I think this morning already
about how we can improve upon our
education system so that again will
bring up the skills the ability of our
people to reach their potential and yet
we also very much aware of what we call
the digital divide technology is
available to society to mankind but
obviously there are gaps we are all
aware of the problems of infrastructure
remote areas to have struggling to have
the same kind of services the same kind
of access to technology as in the more
developed areas we are also aware that
in order to be able to benefit from
technology you need the necessary skills
and again the skills gap can then
exacerbate the degree of inequality when
technology becomes available but what
I'm concerned about the inequality that
I'm going to talk about today is not
about these issues it's something that I
think is more fundamental and it's
inherent in the development of
technology that that we need to be
concerned about because I believe that
unless we redesign some of our systems
about how we allow technology to play
its role in our society there is a real
threat that technology will not be a
force for equality but rather can
actually contribute to increased
inequality why is that well it's going
to be quite difficult to summarize it in
one word or in one concept but the
nearest that I think I can come to is
this problem of monopoly so what I'm
saying is strictly it may not be aware
normally it could be a duopoly it could
be an oligopoly but the problem is in
the structure of our economy the degree
of concentration of economic power
has increased which means more power is
now in the hands of fewer people and
there are a number of aspects about the
technology that is contributing
contributing to that the first is big
data because information and data are
the most important assets of the new
economy of the digital economy who is in
possession of big data governments and
the big corporates and who is able to
collect most of the information and data
again governments and the big corporates
you yourself I think all of us here have
experienced daily the people taking data
about ourselves who are they
government agencies when you seek apply
permissions apply for some benefits for
programs and also of course when you are
shopping online you are conducting
transactions online the big corporates
are collecting this data and they're
using that for a number of purposes
maybe commercial purposes government
agencies obviously have individual and
specific purposes for collecting your
data but often this is a boost and there
is now a real concern that this
asymmetry of power as far as the ability
to collect retain and use information
will make our societies even more
unequal I know that there are so many
people who have worked in the startups
in the areas of education health
agriculture trying to help the SMEs and
so on one of the biggest complaints that
have made to me is that they want to
have more information more data but the
people who have the data mostly
government agencies simply will not make
them available
and that is holding them back from the
ability to provide better services to
the people who need these services so
number one we need to do something about
how we manage data who can collect them
who can control them who can use them
and for what purposes the second aspect
of Technology which may be conducive to
increased inequality is the problem of
the need for networks physical or
virtual now even before the digital age
we have already seen that any industry
any services that rely on networks so
perhaps telecommunications power those
people who control the networks the
pipeline's the infrastructure can often
extract so much value because they are
in a position of monopoly well in this
day and age of the digital economy again
the people who control the network have
incredible power and this is then
translated into a reinforcement of
people who are in advantageous position
already so we're not just talking about
physical network think about the digital
communities think about the social media
platforms well I suspect most of you are
on Facebook think about it I've heard so
many times in the last few years when
people become unhappy maybe about
Facebook's policy dude how much of a
choice
do they have in shifting away from an
entrenched or an established social
network or social platform there isn't
that much choice what we see instead
also is that there is more and more
consolidation by the people who own
these networks to be able to merge with
other platforms to create
an even bigger platform for themselves
just like in the offline world many
producers are frustrated that they make
very good products but in order to reach
consumers they either have to rely on
the modern retail network again in the
hands of the few or now maybe the
digital network increasingly also in the
hands of the few
this structure of the economy is not one
that will help us achieve greater
equality in our society the third this
one is actually created by governments
and by laws that is we have given
monopolistic rights in the form of
intellectual property rights to people
who invent now obviously I am very well
aware that this system is in place to
give incentives for people to engage in
research to invent to innovate because
they need to have their returns I am NOT
arguing for no intellectual property
rights but I am pointing out that the
current regime of intellectual property
rights protection oftentimes does not
actually achieve its purpose many people
in the health sector are frustrated that
patents become obstacles for trying to
do further research to perhaps invent or
discover new drugs and we also see I
wouldn't say abuse but the use of
intellectual property rights which tries
basically to just retain monopoly rights
so we have all drugs small changes
longer life time for patents now all of
this can hold development back and is
clearly just creating rents or value for
people who have those monopoly rights
and with the areas of research that are
taking place again we have to question
while whether these researchers will
actually help the majority of people why
take health again as an example we now
have a lot of money and resources being
poured in to do research maybe what
would be called precision medicine what
would we call services that are
customized to specific people maybe
using the study of genomes and so on now
just one easy question who do you think
will be able to afford those kinds of
services mostly it will be the wealthy
and the well-off
now my talk is also motivated by
observations in the past when we have
had famines when we have had famines in
the past people who have done research
on this discovered that in those places
where people are actually dying because
there is because they cannot eat they
don't have any food to eat in those very
areas there is often a surplus of food
and even today you know some countries
throw out a third of their food did you
know that while there are still chronic
hunger and undernourishment for so many
people in the world why is that because
basically food does not go to the hungry
where does food go it goes to the people
who can afford it we must not allow
technology to follow the same route we
must try to redesign a new system to
make sure that the technology that is
available to us can serve everybody not
just the few so just a few quick ideas
first to deal with big data this
principle of open data must be demanded
we should have clear guidelines about
the rules about who can collect data who
can retain data who can then use that
data
and for what purposes with the issue of
privacy and so on being protected as
well if we have an open data system at
the national level even better at the
global level I'm sure we will unleash so
much potential for people who have the
knowledge the skills the imagination to
want to use technology than have access
to this kind of data and it will create
a much much more level playing field so
that we are more likely to have an equal
society second in terms of network we
have to demand more open access which
means that the owners of the network the
owners of some kind of advantage must be
under some kind of rules to allow others
to tap into those resources and networks
so that they too can create value they
too can create competition indeed I
would argue that the competition laws
that we have all over the world and you
know antitrust laws whatever you want to
call them are based on a rather outdated
mode of reality
it used to be concerned with you know
merging and being a dominant player in
one market and some solutions that are
often proposed by these laws would be to
break up monopolies that's not the kind
of problem that we are facing now we're
facing cross industry cross-platform
mergers we are dealing with the issues
of vertical integration we don't want to
break things up but we want to make sure
that the competition is fair that there
is a chance for new players to come in
that everybody can become served not
just the ones that are in a wealthy
position we need a new design for IPR
protection and also research allocation
as I say when you shouldn't be taking
away incentives but the incentives may
have to take a different form so for
instance could it be the case that now
governments would have to put in some
resources to help
the researchers with the condition that
once the innovations actually take place
and they can be beneficial to people
there should be made available at low
cost this is very clear in the case of
drugs and if you look at the history it
is there's always been a long fight
about making even life-saving drugs
available to people but we ran into
problems of intellectual property
protection so there you have it you know
you have a problem where there would be
so many needs and needy people on the
one hand and some people are received
with the resources with the money can we
make sure that eventually we can merge
this not allow technology to create
things and just go to the high-income
wealthy people and high values but also
serving everybody for me I think it's
time that we make technology Galit arian
make technology a force for equity and
justice and we must change some of the
rules and redesign our systems to make
sure that it happens thank you
[Applause]