UN puts AI Titans on the hook for billions of dollars of biopiracy payments

It’s the wee hours of 2nd November 2024 in Cali, Colombia. In a large UN negotiating hall   Colombian Environment Minister Susana Muhamed  has slammed down the gavel on a decision that should send a jolt through the AI policy world.  The decision, while seemingly about paying for genetic data, sets a significant wider precedent for how AI firms can be held accountable for stealing training data without consent or recompense.

Here is the context: After years of stand-offs and diplomatic wrangling, the United Nation’s Convention on Biological Diversity (UN CBD) this month adopted a landmark decision on something called “DSI”. DSI stands for  Digital Sequence Information. It refers to digital versions of biological ‘codes’ such as DNA, RNA or the amino acids in proteins. These biological “codes” are routinely collected, stored and processed in digital form and have become the raw commodity powering the global$1.5 trillion dollar biotech industry. Originally sequenced from plants, animals, bacteria and viruses extracted  from territories (plus human medical samples) the sheer volume of ‘DSI’ now stacking up in servers and databases rivals much of...