Since Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum’s announcement in 2016 of the impending Fourth Industrial Revolution in his book of the same title, SA has been swept up in the wave global hype around the extraordinary potential for 4IR technologies — artificial intelligence , robotics, drones and blockchain — and the dire fate of nations who fail to embrace these inevitable technological developments.
But it will need a transversal strategy that goes way beyond AI, machine learning, blockchain and drones. It will require an adaptive governance framework able to engage the entire digital ecosystem in all its complexity; in its local and global manifestations. Even a cursory glance at earlier industrial revolutions will show that they have not been associated with the interests of the underclasses . Rather, they are associated with the advancement of big capital, through the “big” tech of the day. This industrial revolution is no different.
Why do we have so little faith in the outcomes of our own policy processes that we abandon our collective wisdom when the latest cleverly packaged product comes along?