Hollywood’s victory can help everyday people profit from their data

The agreement between the Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild establishes a precedent for the protection of human creativity in an era of artificial intelligence (AI). In addition, it might just provide a foundation for an entirely transformed data economy, one that recognizes individual rights to our personal digital identities. 

During the past two decades of the digital era, people willingly agreed to what seemed like an ideal bargain — we provide our photos, thoughts and data footprints to large digital platforms in exchange for a free service through which we can reach and interact with people around the world. It was an incredibly rich and powerful experience, one that enhanced our connections around the globe and built some of the most valuable companies the planet has ever seen. 

That free exchange of data added a new element to the power imbalance that so often occurs between industry and the populace at large. With individual bits of data worth virtually nothing, and the aggregation of them worth billions of dollars, this Faustian bargain left consumers with virtually no control over how the big tech platforms used their data. Delete your account or provide your digital footprint to ends unknown. 

So, we as individuals generate data footprints without property rights nor the ability to control the terms under which our data “labor” is used. The global data market, which consists of collecting, packaging and selling both individual and organizational data, is already estimated at more than $3 trillion — and, given the amount of value already lost to data of poor quality it could be worth as much as $6 trillion or more.  

The actors and writers strikes, which raised concerns about the ownership and control of human creativity and data during an explosion of powerful generative AI platforms, finally brought a collective response by individuals against the tech and media industries that could otherwise aggregate and control their data. As such, the agreement offers a roadmap for broader data rights and markets in ways that can benefit individuals, industries and economies alike.  

It is time for a new Digital Property Rights Act that takes into account the evolved realities of advanced tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, Meta’s LLaMa, etc. This concept, which would protect creators’ interests and cut them into the wealth generated with these tools, would put humans at the center and safeguard shared growth for us and industry at the same time. 

As a next step, we need to establish an open, clearly regulated data market that would decide what kind of data footprints should be valued and the cut of the value individual creators of IP should retain. Clearly, my data won’t garner the same value as Tom Cruise’s latest “Mission Impossible” role or Michelle Yeoh’s Oscar-winning performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” but it still has worth in various combinations, to which I, as its creator, should retain some right. 

Technology solutions for this already exist, between semi-autonomous bots that protect data footprints according to personal agency and privacy charters and blockchain-based smart contracts. We even know how to value packages of different data types. Building on those with regulation that preserves digital rights — like the Hollywood agreements — and then providing clear signals and trusted exchanges of value would create a new data-driven economy that’s more equitable for the human contributors and creates the kind of clarity that business needs to grow.  

Studios and tech firms could use our data to design new products, services and experiences that generate new revenue streams. Health care and pharmaceutical companies can design better drugs. Education providers can help us learn with greater ease and fun.  

And along the way, the creators of those content footprints can earn their fair share of the revenues, even if only in tiny portions at a time. A trillion times over, even those minute amounts will lead to more shared growth and more trust that will perpetuate itself. 

If our data is indeed the lifeblood of the digital economy and we want more of it in all kinds of places to make our lives richer, safer and more convenient, we need those dedicated digital property rights. The actors and writers strikes took us a large step closer. 

Olaf Groth, Ph.D., is professional faculty for global strategy, innovation and public policy at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, CEO of advisory think tank Cambrian.ai and a member of the Global AI Governance Alliance at the World Economic Forum. He’s a frequent media commentator and author of “The Great Remobilization: Strategies & Designs For A Smarter Global Future, Solomon’s Code: Humanity In A World of Thinking Machines,” and “The AI Generation: Shaping Our Global Future with Thinking Machines.”