The global scramble for biomedical data in the AI arms race is increasingly lopsided, with China collecting a huge amount of data but limiting its own data sharing and openness. Europe is building an AI data ecosystem that is predominantly publicly governed, but data are available for AI development only through controlled, application-based mechanisms.
When geneticist Jingyuan Fu heard that an AI group in China had downloaded a large biomedical data set her team built in Europe , she felt pride — and a jolt of unease.
The dataset grew out of a gut microbiome study launched in 2006 and expanded its scope over time. Fu's group, like many others, has also begun using such data as feedstock for artificial intelligence. The AI group in China that downloaded her dataset had the same goal. China has collected a huge amount of data, but their own data sharing and openness is very limited.
The global scramble for biomedical data looks increasingly lopsided. Fu emphasizes that AI is only as good as the data it learns from. After decades of policies pushing 'open science', governments are now promoting 'data sovereignty' — the idea that sensitive datasets should remain under national control and foreign access should be conditional. Europe is building an AI data ecosystem that is predominantly publicly governed, interoperable and regulated, even though 'public' does not mean open access.
Data are available for AI development, but only through controlled, application-based mechanisms. The mood in Brussels is defensive, and European Commission officials are embarrassed about having allowed Chinese AI developers to plunder European biomedical databases, even while China blocks foreign access to Chinese datasets. They are now belatedly closing international access to biomedical databases, after years of championing cross-border sharing
Artificial Intelligence Biomedical Data China Data Sovereignty Europe Global Scramble Open Science Unequal Access
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