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AI & SOCIETY

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19-03-2022 | Curmudgeon Corner

The ethical imperative to identify and address data and intelligence asymmetries

Author: Stefaan G. Verhulst

Published in: AI & SOCIETY | Issue 1/2024

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Francis Bacon is generally known as the man who developed the scientific method¹ in the sixteenth century, but he is also credited with coining the aphorism that “knowledge is power” (Meditationes Sacrae, 1597). As economies and society in general have grown more complex, the truth of this aphorism has only increased. In 1970, George Akerlof published “The Market for Lemons,”² his seminal paper on information asymmetries and how access to information can define markets and establish winners and losers. Although Akerlof focused on the used car market, his insights applied across sectors and industries. In 2001, Akerlof, Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz were awarded³ the Nobel Prize in Economics “for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information.” …

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Title: The ethical imperative to identify and address data and intelligence asymmetries
Author: Stefaan G. Verhulst
Publication date: 19-03-2022
Publisher: Springer London
Published in: AI & SOCIETY / Issue 1/2024
Print ISSN: 0951-5666
Electronic ISSN: 1435-5655
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01410-5

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