What Happens if AI No Longer Has Access to Good Data to Train On?What Happens if AI No Longer Has Access to Good Data to Train On?

As new policies on privacy take hold, it might change the availability of data AI can train on.

Joao-Pierre S. Ruth, Senior Editor

January 17, 2025

In a world dominated increasingly by AI, access to relevant data becomes paramount -- but what if such streams of information dry up?

Regulators at state, national, and international levels continue to watch how businesses capture and use data that could be used to train AI. If restrictions emerge that cut off access to data that AI needs, would the technology stall out despite its promises of innovation?

Alternatives such as synthetic data exist, but are they sufficient to properly train AI and deliver results that actually matter to operations?

This episode features Shobha Phansalkar, vice president of client solutions and innovation for Wolters Kluwer; Olga Megorskaya, founder and CEO of Toloka; Pete DeJoy, co-founder and senior vice president of product for Astronomer; Melissa Bischoping, senior director of security and product design research at Tanium; and Omar Khawaja, Field CISO, Databricks.

They discussed types of data that is necessary and relevant for training AI, how organizations might determine if data is useful or simply junk, what happens if policy stonewalls data access, and whether or not AI simply dies without data.

Listen to the full podcast here.

About the Author

Joao-Pierre S. Ruth

Senior Editor

Joao-Pierre S. Ruth covers tech policy, including ethics, privacy, legislation, and risk; fintech; code strategy; and cloud & edge computing for information. He has been a journalist for more than 25 years, reporting on business and technology first in New Jersey, then covering the New York tech startup community, and later as a freelancer for such outlets as TheStreet, Investopedia, and Street Fight.


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