Galileo's aphorism "Measure what can be measured, and make measurable what cannot be" echoes through almost every algorithmic system today. But reverberating in these echoes is the reality that the act of'making' something measurable is never purely objective: it is the result of subjective choices. Acknowledging this is key to preventing the harms algorithms can create. It's seemingly intuitive to think of'data' about a thing as a true representation of it. For example, my height is 5'9" and London is the capital city of the United Kingdom -- two data points that reflect reality. But renowned statistician David Spiegelhalter reminds us how data'is almost always an imperfect measure of what we are interested in.' To count all the trees on the planet, he notes, we must first define what counts as a tree. There's more than one way to do that, and not everyone will agree on which way is correct. It's a good reminder: some would say I'm more like 5'8" and a half, depending on how you hold the tape measure, and what of Edinburgh, Wales and Belfast?

Latitude 44, a conference that shone the spotlight on key players in the technology world from Estonia and Canada, took place in Toronto on November 14 and 15. "Estonia's digital transformation continues as it persists to be a free and open digital society. Estonia seeks to be a champion of the free movement of data and a supporter of the use of technology in a way that does not require significant restrictions on our rights." "We are in a period of incredible growth. I have been in the business for 30 years and I've never seen it like this." Bruce Croxon, partner at Round13 Capital and TV Host, The Disruptors, Toronto "Estonia has a very startup friendly business environment for entering into the European market. We offer e-residency so that entrepreneurs can do business remotely using Estonian e-services and we now have 65,000 new e-residents and 7,000 companies."

Luciano Floridi has never been kind with technology. In '95, when the web as we know it today did not exist and he was a PhD Philosophy student, he wrote things such as: «No one controls the system globally, and the very structure of the internet ensures that will ever be able to control it in the future». Or: «the Internet promotes the growth of knowledge while creating forms of unprecedented ignorance». He directs the Digital Ethics Lab at the University of Oxford, he is the president of the Data Ethics Group of the Alan Turing Institute. And he serves as advisor to big tech, governments and the European Union.

We live in the digital world, where every day we interact with digital systems either through a mobile device or from inside a car. These systems are increasingly autonomous in making decisions over and above their users or on behalf of them. As a consequence, ethical issues--privacy ones included (for example, unauthorized disclosure and mining of personal data, access to restricted resources)--are emerging as matters of utmost concern since they affect the moral rights of each human being and have an impact on the social, economic, and political spheres. Europe is at the forefront of the regulation and reflections on these issues through its institutional bodies. Privacy with respect to the processing of personal data is recognized as part of the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals.

Fans are the primary source of income for idols and producers, for whom it is imperative to understand their needs, demands, and interests. The gaming industry, for example, is in dire need of fan-related information.[iv] Fans of books and TV series which are currently on hiatus, such as "Game of Thrones", are constantly demanding new content.[v] Sports fans are turning to swarm intelligence to make their bets,[vi] while music streaming services such as Spotify rely heavily on machine learning to create personalized music playlists.[vii] The list goes on and on.

At 48 years old, Kersti Kaljulaid is Estonia's youngest president ever, and its first female president. A marathon runner with degrees in genetics and an MBA, she spent a career behind the scenes--mostly as a European government auditor--before being elected by Estonia's legislature in 2016. Known for its digital government, tax, and medical systems, Estonia is planning for the future. The country's "e-resident" program--which allows global citizens to obtain a government-issued ID card and set up remotely-operated businesses in Estonia--has attracted 35,000 people since 2014. Now the government is discussing a proposal to grant some rights to artificially intelligent systems.

Editor's Note: This article first appeared in Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Scientific American's sister publication, as "Digitale Demokratie statt Datendiktatur." "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another." The digital revolution is in full swing. How will it change our world? The amount of data we produce doubles every year. In other words: in 2016 we produced as much data as in the entire history of humankind through 2015. Every minute we produce hundreds of thousands of Google searches and Facebook posts. These contain information that reveals how we think and feel. Soon, the things around us, possibly even our clothing, also will be connected with the Internet. It is estimated that in 10 years' time there will be 150 billion networked measuring sensors, 20 times more than people on Earth. Then, the amount of data will double every 12 hours. Many companies are already trying to turn this Big Data into Big Money. Everything will become intelligent; soon we will not only have smart phones, but also smart homes, smart factories and smart cities. Should we also expect these developments to result in smart nations and a smarter planet? The field of artificial intelligence is, indeed, making breathtaking advances. In particular, it is contributing to the automation of data analysis. Artificial intelligence is no longer programmed line by line, but is now capable of learning, thereby continuously developing itself. Recently, Google's DeepMind algorithm taught itself how to win 49 Atari games. Algorithms can now recognize handwritten language and patterns almost as well as humans and even complete some tasks better than them. They are able to describe the contents of photos and videos. Today 70% of all financial transactions are performed by algorithms. News content is, in part, automatically generated. This all has radical economic consequences: in the coming 10 to 20 years around half of today's jobs will be threatened by algorithms. It can be expected that supercomputers will soon surpass human capabilities in almost all areas--somewhere between 2020 and 2060. Experts are starting to ring alarm bells.

How does a California winery founded in 1933 transform a culture rooted in farming to an innovative business capable of seizing digital opportunity? Sanjay Shringarpure, CIO at E&J Gallo Winery, was hired in 2014 to help grow technology from a cost center role and add business value, he told the audience of CIOs on a panel at Gartner CIO Leadership Forum in Phoenix, Arizona. Shringarpure shared that his approach was to create five major platforms to invest in for growth. For the agriculture platform, three interns were tasked with the challenge of determining how to digitalize the time-consuming process of checking whether the grapes were ready to harvest. The result was an innovative app that reduces labor costs while increasing the acreage scheduled for harvest each season in a shorter period of time.

Editor's Note: This article first appeared in Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Scientific American's sister publication, as "Digitale Demokratie statt Datendiktatur." "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another." The digital revolution is in full swing. How will it change our world? The amount of data we produce doubles every year. In other words: in 2016 we produced as much data as in the entire history of humankind through 2015. Every minute we produce hundreds of thousands of Google searches and Facebook posts. These contain information that reveals how we think and feel. Soon, the things around us, possibly even our clothing, also will be connected with the Internet. It is estimated that in 10 years' time there will be 150 billion networked measuring sensors, 20 times more than people on Earth. Then, the amount of data will double every 12 hours. Many companies are already trying to turn this Big Data into Big Money. Everything will become intelligent; soon we will not only have smart phones, but also smart homes, smart factories and smart cities. Should we also expect these developments to result in smart nations and a smarter planet? The field of artificial intelligence is, indeed, making breathtaking advances. In particular, it is contributing to the automation of data analysis. Artificial intelligence is no longer programmed line by line, but is now capable of learning, thereby continuously developing itself. Recently, Google's DeepMind algorithm taught itself how to win 49 Atari games. Algorithms can now recognize handwritten language and patterns almost as well as humans and even complete some tasks better than them. They are able to describe the contents of photos and videos. Today 70% of all financial transactions are performed by algorithms. News content is, in part, automatically generated. This all has radical economic consequences: in the coming 10 to 20 years around half of today's jobs will be threatened by algorithms. It can be expected that supercomputers will soon surpass human capabilities in almost all areas--somewhere between 2020 and 2060. Experts are starting to ring alarm bells.

Editor's Note: This article first appeared in Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Scientific American's sister publication, as "Digitale Demokratie statt Datendiktatur." "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another." The digital revolution is in full swing. How will it change our world? The amount of data we produce doubles every year. In other words: in 2016 we produced as much data as in the entire history of humankind through 2015. Every minute we produce hundreds of thousands of Google searches and Facebook posts. These contain information that reveals how we think and feel. Soon, the things around us, possibly even our clothing, also will be connected with the Internet. It is estimated that in 10 years' time there will be 150 billion networked measuring sensors, 20 times more than people on Earth. Then, the amount of data will double every 12 hours. Many companies are already trying to turn this Big Data into Big Money. Everything will become intelligent; soon we will not only have smart phones, but also smart homes, smart factories and smart cities. Should we also expect these developments to result in smart nations and a smarter planet? The field of artificial intelligence is, indeed, making breathtaking advances. In particular, it is contributing to the automation of data analysis. Artificial intelligence is no longer programmed line by line, but is now capable of learning, thereby continuously developing itself. Recently, Google's DeepMind algorithm taught itself how to win 49 Atari games. Algorithms can now recognize handwritten language and patterns almost as well as humans and even complete some tasks better than them. They are able to describe the contents of photos and videos. Today 70% of all financial transactions are performed by algorithms. News content is, in part, automatically generated. This all has radical economic consequences: in the coming 10 to 20 years around half of today's jobs will be threatened by algorithms. It can be expected that supercomputers will soon surpass human capabilities in almost all areas--somewhere between 2020 and 2060.