Page 71 - WEF Reoprt 2020

desire for its own cloud—in part to retain then-IMF Chair Christine Lagarde warned,
valuable data now being extracted by foreign “being alert to risks in terms of financial
players—risks it falling behind in this global stability, privacy or criminal activities, and
race. Other economic risks include: ensuring appropriate regulation is in place to
steer technology toward the public good.” 49
Fragmentation costs. In today’s
hyperconnected global economy, it is Societal risks
estimated that a total shutdown of the internet The differential speed of 4IR developments
would result in a daily GDP loss of 1.9% in around the world risks widening divides
a high-connectivity country and 0.4% in a between nations. Highly digitized economies
low-connectivity country. Fragmentation of have the capacities and capital to invest in
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cyberspace and technologies could aggravate future technologies, leaving behind others—
these economic consequences by having especially in Africa, ASEAN and Latin
negative effects on businesses’ use of cloud America—that currently trail in areas such
services, increased transactional costs of as patents, IoT development and market
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doing business across parallel jurisdictions capitalization. Societal risks include:
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and lower productivity by requiring different
production lines for different markets. Digital divide and wealth gaps. A widening
These economic consequences undermine digital divide between countries risks a
businesses’ ability to realize the vicious cycle, as increasing wealth gaps and
potential of 4IR technologies.
a brain drain make it harder for those left
80 Loss of sustainability. As the behind to catch up, and easier for regions
to miss critical investment opportunities that
world is on the brink of climate
would allow access to new 4IR technology
markets. Hence, countries could lose out
collapse (see Chapter 3, A Decade
of efforts for overcoming such
and subsequently lack the R&D capabilities
number of Left), the necessary duplication on the compounding effect of investments
technical fragmentation would
needed to thrive, contributing to yet further
international not only be economically brain drain. Within countries, wealth gaps
frameworks counterproductive, but also could also increase: automation is forecasted
environmentally inefficient. This
to hit low-skilled workers and women the
of ethics inefficiency is further amplified hardest. Societal divides could also widen
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and AI by countries’ pursuit of isolated between rural and urban areas in developing
national technology regulations.
economies, and between smart and non-
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Adaptation to different products smart cities in developed countries. The
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for different markets would wide-scale affordability of new technologies
inevitably increase the negative will be one important factor for minimizing
environmental footprint of any industry. At the digital divide. 54
the same time, today’s ecological footprint
of mass data generated for and by AI— A human dystopia. Given the growing
for example, the energy required to run societal awareness of problems such as
servers—is already considerable. 47 biased algorithms and cyberbullying, there
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are many calls for deeper engagement on
Monetary and fiscal risks. The lack of questions of ethics in the development and
coordinated efforts by nations on how to use of 4IR technologies. Due diligence must
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capture wealth created by open trade and be applied to avoid negative consequences
through digital means is a major challenge, for under-represented communities. The lack
creating disparities with local companies of a global technological framework could
and between countries. Moreover, new lead to a dystopia involving, for example,
digital currencies operating outside a clear cyberbullying without consequences,
regulatory framework could undermine workplace surveillance and the erosion of
sovereign currencies and international employee privacy. 57
cooperation against money laundering.
Collapse in confidence in digital currencies While the open cyberspace has allowed
could also threaten financial stability. At the the democratization of certain processes
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same time, innovation in this space could and increased access to information and
provide social benefit but this requires, as data, growing opportunities for promoting

66 Wild Wide Web