Collective intelligence: Socialized inputs and privatized profits?

livemint.com:

Collective intelligence is becoming a catchphrase meant to capture the essence of the knowledge economy, where multitudes of people collaborate on difficult challenges, with each bringing something different to the table. The result is continuous experimentation and innovation, leading to great discoveries. And with the proliferation of artificial intelligence, the participants in this process may not even be human.

Isn’t that a nice thought? As compelling as this description may be, our romantic narrative of how discovery occurs obscures the terms of collaboration. Who is participating? Who is actually creating value? And how are the rewards being distributed? Those profiting from the status quo would prefer that we not ask. Yet, these are pertinent questions, because many of those who contribute to innovation are often overlooked.

Labour regularly gets dismissed, as does the state. I called attention to this in my 2013 book, The Entrepreneurial State, which examined the tendency to see the private sector as a value-creating risk taker and the state as merely a de-risker or impediment to value creation. This traditional framing ignores the state’s role in funding innovations like the mRNA covid vaccines, which were supported by some $31.9 billion in US public investment.

Unless we rethink these narratives about value creation, innovation will continue to benefit only shareholders, rather than all stakeholders—from workers to the communities where businesses operate. For ‘stakeholder value’ to be more than a corporate-governance gimmick, we must not only recognize that value is created collectively, but also ensure that the rewards are shared more broadly across all creators. For example, profits should be reinvested in