Cyber security remains a challenge (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

The big global steps to forge a new relationship between tech and society

A lot of global tech-related policy has been implemented or proposed this year, so it’s worth taking stock to capture the developments.

Miah Hammond-Errey

19 December 20244 min read

With 2023 the year that AI became a feature rather than the future, 2024 was the year AI hype peaked. Breathless announcements of new developments underscored the turning point as globally we saw the power that big tech has – and what this means for democracy.

A flurry of policy has accompanied global recognition of social media, surveillance and privacy concerns, as well as frustration about the personality influence of tech titans. Beyond Elon Musk’s well-documented role, Amazon, Meta and OpenAI’s Sam Altman are lining up to each donate $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. The role of tech figures in supporting and advising Trump will play out in the coming months.

But for the technology itself, if the hype cycle has indeed passed the “Peak of Inflated Expectations”, hopefully, this portends more meaningful innovation and implementation of exciting new products that don’t rely on the worst parts of the data economy.

A lot of tech-related policy has been implemented or proposed this year, so it’s worth taking stock to capture the developments.

Australia has been seen globally and domestically as attempting to rein in big tech power. However, many of the measures are narrow and will not shift the power imbalance, if that even can be achieved. A digital competition framework is currently open for consultation. And Australia made global headlines again last week when the government announced plans to introduce a new “tax” as an offset intended to encourage tech companies to make deals with Australian media to fund independent journalism.

Mirroring global news consumption trends, half of Australians (49%) use social media to access news. This rises to nearly two-thirds of Gen Z (60%) that rely on social media as a main news source. These percentages will continue to rise. With information integrity vital to democracy, something must be done to ensure that misinformation and disinformation doesn’t become a staple.

This year has been the most active anti-trust legal landscape globally in decades.

Australia has also introduced a (rather controversial) law that bans children under 16 from using social media. Australia briefly flirted with banning TikTok, while a December appeal to a US court upheld an order for parent company ByteDance to divest from the social media platform by 19 January to avoid being blocked in the United States.

The United States has escalated AI to a national security issue, covering data, connectivity, energy generation, computing capacity, semiconductors and the workforce. Sensitive data flows on Americans were restricted to countries of concern, including China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. A US-proposed ban on Chinese-made EV’s has also built broader awareness of the data collection capabilities of modern cars.

But the concern goes beyond a focus on countries. The US Department of Justice proposed the divesture of Chrome from Google, following a landmark court ruling in August in which a federal judge ruled that Google maintained an illegal monopoly over online search. And Microsoft, which began 2024 as the darling of AI for taking a majority stake in OpenAI, rolled out the now controversial Recall feature, widely seen since as a tool of surveillance as well as a privacy nightmare for capturing credit card and social security numbers.

Cyber security remains a challenge. Australia made the first use of autonomous cyber sanctions against Russian citizen Alexander Ermakov for his role in the Medibank breach. There has also been a maturing of national coordination for cyber security incidents, and the Cyber Security Act 2024 became law.

The finger has also been pointed directly at Chinese government-sponsored cyber-attacks, which this year included groups Volt Typhoon, APT40 and Flax Typhoon. While not a cyber-attack, the CrowdStrike outage in July illustrated just how interdependent and vulnerable digital systems really are. Subsequently, Salt Typhoon hackers compromised large portions of the American telecommunications network. This led US officials to unexpectedly urge Americans to use encrypted apps.

But privacy is still alive and clicking. Australians care deeply about data privacy even if regulation remains elusive. The first tranche of Australia’s privacy reform takes steps in the right direction but does not do enough and more is needed, soon. Advertising data about Australian defence and political leaders flows to foreign states and non-state actors. Images of Australian children were found in AI training dataset LAION-5B, without parental consent. Building supplies company Bunnings was found to have employed a facial recognition system in breach of Australians’ privacy.

What does this mean for 2025? The bumpy ride will continue, but there is good news to recognise.

This year has seen the most active anti-trust legal landscape globally in decades. Big tech is facing lawsuits, anti-trust cases and major court rulings across the United States, United Kingdom and Europe, which will continue to unfold into the new year. Regulators are motivated and apparently just getting started.

Much of the way we think about technology has so far been shaped by tech companies themselves. That will change in the year ahead. As the public gains increased awareness of alternative business models – and the kind of technology people and societies want – more exciting futures can be imagined. This will see a change in how people approach tech. Hopefully big tech companies can reset their relationships with democratic governments and populations and become drivers of new solutions.

About the author

Miah Hammond-Errey

Dr Miah Hammond-Errey is the founding CEO of Strat Futures Pty Limited and host of the Technology & Security podcast.

Topics

Cyber & technology