The metaverse will not be Brazilian. But web3 could be – Fast Company Brasil
What is Brazil’s function in international innovation? Maybe simply an viewers for the large gamers. The imaginative and prescient of Ronaldo Lemos, lawyer, professor and scientific director of the Institute of Technology and Society of Rio de Janeiro (ITS Rio), could not please many. But it offers a warning sign about the principle challenges that the nation should face with a view to be the protagonist of the information economic system.
The first place of consideration is the metaverse, which relies on the infrastructure and processing energy. “We will hardly take part in these infrastructures. The servers that run the metaverse will not be largely in Brazil”, explains the specialist, one of many essential articulators of the Marco Civil da Internet.
On the opposite hand, web3, the “new era” of the web, can present actual alternatives for development. The concern additionally lies with synthetic intelligence techniques, which depend on infrastructure and information networks not discovered within the nation.
“We urgently want a nationwide plan for synthetic intelligence,” says Lemos, who was one of many first 20 members of Facebook’s Supervisory Board and is president of the Technology and Innovation Commission for the São Paulo area of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB-Brasil). ). SP).
In this interview, the specialist additionally talks concerning the charge of deployment of 5G in Brazil and the actual alternatives that the change from the content material economic system to the information economic system can deliver to the nation.
What is your imaginative and prescient of innovation? What can be categorized as really progressive?
I like to think about innovation as the method of transition to the information economic system. In different phrases, more and more embrace information and innovation as the principle supply of wealth era. I believe that pondering this fashion is extra attention-grabbing and sensible than discussing theoretical ideas of how innovation is outlined.
What are essentially the most urgent points that society wants to deal with and the way can know-how assist?
In the context of Brazil, our problem is to take part increasingly more
We have to start out residing on concepts, on what comes from inside our heads. Technology is a necessary issue for this.
extra of the information economic system. We reside so much from nature and we’re even aggressive on this space, both in agriculture or mining. But it’s not sufficient. We have to start out residing on concepts, on what comes from inside our heads. Technology is a necessary issue for this, particularly as a result of it has expanded entry to data and the potential for working in a community, cooperating and competing based mostly on new dynamics. We have taken little or no benefit of the alternatives that this brings to the nation.
On the opposite hand, know-how has generated urgent points for society. How to deal with them?
Technology at all times brings alternatives and challenges. Challenges are free, inevitable. You do not should do something, they will present up anyway. Opportunities, no. To be taken benefit of, it’s essential make investments, plan, know the place you wish to go. Unfortunately, we’re getting extra challenges than alternatives.
Of course, know-how has introduced essential actions to the nation, such because the fintech revolution, technique of fee, with Pix and in agriculture itself, with the incorporation of intelligence and precision applied sciences. But every little thing remains to be shy and under what the nation could do.
After all, what’s the metaverse and what can it contribute to society?
The metaverse is a time, not a spot. It’s a time when what occurs within the digital world is extra necessary than actuality itself. It goes to the platforms, which handle to achieve a lot significance in our lives that they compete – and even surpass – the significance we give to actuality itself.
These metaverses are beneath development. For adults, they’re nonetheless uncommon. But for youngsters, they’re quite common. Those who use platforms like Roblox know what it’s. There are hundreds of thousands of youngsters around the globe, together with Brazil, who’re already within the metaverse.
What doubtful and/or detrimental features do you see within the potentialities of the metaverse?
The problem that worries me essentially the most is that it additional limits the
The metaverse is a time when what occurs within the digital world is extra necessary than actuality itself.
risk for Brazil to take part within the information economic system. People consider the metaverse solely when it comes to content material. But it’s a advanced infrastructure, stuffed with layers. It relies upon, for instance, on a great Internet connection. Great servers and processing energy. From a number of banks of high-priced and tough to entry programming code.
Brazil will hardly take part in these infrastructures. Most servers operating the metaverse will not be right here. The code libraries that create the metaverse will not be Brazilian. What half do we’ve then? Just the highest layer of apps? It’s not sufficient.
Where are the most important regulatory gaps on the Internet?
There are many questions. What web are we speaking about? One of the principle issues is that the Internet is fragmenting. Various locations in Asia and the Middle East have their very own dynamics, together with closed and managed. The identical is going on in Russia. What type of regulatory effort is able to countering this? Virtually none, as this comes from a wider geopolitical context.
Several initiatives have emerged to attempt to create a governance mannequin for the community. The UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF), Netmundial, amongst others. all failed As a outcome, regulatory scope in the present day is regional and likewise depending on native contexts.
European privateness laws is one instance. It is likely one of the most profitable regulatory fashions when it comes to adoption by many international locations. But it’s at all times tough to breed this identical vary with regional fashions.
What can we anticipate from the way forward for synthetic intelligence, since it’s a human creation and infrequently repeats our biases?
We want a plan that organizes nationwide information coverage and is a strategy to encourage innovation and growth.
I care extra about AI’s failures and issues than its successes. The drawback is that it provides options which can be solely partially good. In this sense, it replaces human labor with a worse different. Also, the identical metaverse drawback arises for Brazil. Artificial intelligence at all times relies on a fancy infrastructure of {hardware}, information and software program. What function will we play?
We urgently want a nationwide synthetic intelligence plan. In {hardware} and software program it will be tough to be aggressive within the quick time period, however in information it’s potential. The nation wants a plan that organizes its nationwide information coverage and is a strategy to encourage innovation and growth.
There is a debate in Europe concerning the regulation and supervision of synthetic intelligence. What is your opinion?
necessary Metrics have to be created to judge selections made by synthetic intelligence. The Alan Turing Institute in England, for instance, has accomplished a great job on this regard. But you possibly can’t cease at simply the AI outcomes layer. You have to know your infrastructure, your stack [conjunto de tecnologias usadas para criar aplicações]. The drawback of regulation is way more advanced.
What potentialities open up with the arrival of 5G in Brazil?
5G is coming late. According to Anatel’s schedule [Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações], when it’s about to achieve the inside of the nation, the place it has a better transformative function, the implementation of 6G will already be underway. Still, 5G could be very welcome, particularly the “thoroughbred”. self employed [versão da rede 5G que funciona sem o suporte da rede 4G]which is the mannequin that prevailed in Brazil
If we are able to create a nationwide 5G infrastructure self employed, this could create alternatives for very massive leaps, even within the administration of cities, industrial estates, and many others. But you need to watch to see if 5G self employed will be carried out as promised.
What alternatives does web3 provide and the way to consider its regulation?
Metrics have to be created to judge selections made by synthetic intelligence.
I believe Brazil can be extra aggressive in web3 than metaverse. It makes use of permissionless applied sciences equivalent to public and open blockchains. It does not depend on advanced and extremely costly infrastructure or inaccessible code libraries. Today, a small enterprise is more likely to be aggressive in creating an influence mannequin in web3 than in different proprietary applied sciences. It is an space that deserves consideration.
To what do you attribute the wave of layoffs at startups around the globe? Has the unicorn mannequin “fallen”?
There’s the traditional phrase: “it is the economic system, silly.” In latest months, the world has modified, from an financial perspective. The straightforward cash has dried up, rates of interest have risen, and this limits a sure mannequin of entrepreneurship.
But it is usually in crises the place attention-grabbing issues occur. The bursting of the primary tech bubble within the early 2000s led to the emergence of Wikipedia, free and open software program fashions, together with Android, which in flip created a whole {hardware} trade on high of it. This present disaster can generate attention-grabbing concepts and fashions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Journalist with a level from the ECA-USP, early adopter of applied sciences (and born curious) and specialised in storytelling for enterprise. know extra