With AI advancements, who ultimately possesses your thoughts and essence?

Editor’s note: This essay is adapted from the best-selling book, “You Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back” by Carol Roth.

There is a growing awareness and resistance against the use of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), to violate individuals’ unique physical and related characteristics.

The actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, and the writers’ union, WGA, in Hollywood are concerned about AI exploiting an individual’s work and taking over their biometrics and individuality. They are working to prevent such outcomes and protect individual rights in the digital domain.

In Kenya, the country has stopped the operations of the startup Worldcoin, which claims to be “the world’s largest human identity and financial network,” due to their collection of data through iris scans.

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However, there is still a lot more that needs to be done.

As technology continues to advance and the powerful seek more control, the combination of the two will result in numerous technologies that replace and suppress rights. Digital IDs, digital currencies, and their links to social credit provide new ways to gather and store information. And with that, the potential to exploit that information.

Consider the control over your personal information.

Previously, companies had access to and may have even sold certain pieces of data like your name, address, phone number, and marital status. Optional demographic information may have been requested when registering for a warranty, for example.

But now, companies, especially technology companies, know almost everything about you. With the increasing use of palm and fingerprint scanners, connecting personal data to digital wallets, and more, what happens to the unique traits, talents, and biometrics that define you?

What happens to your thoughts?

Imagine a future scenario. You are involved in a severe car accident and on the brink of death. The paramedics arrive, but it seems unlikely that they can save you. They contact your next of kin, who gives consent. The paramedics remove a chip from your brain, which is connected to a backup copy of your brain downloaded onto a device. Your family retrieves this chip and inserts it into a new body that you have chosen for yourself. You come back to life, with vague memories of the accident. Additionally, you look different because you’ve chosen a robotic body that is 20 pounds lighter and three inches taller.

However, the backup information on the chip is stored with a major technology firm.

Now, imagine if that tech firm disagrees with your pre-accident views and the government also disapproves. What happens then?

When you own a pet, you may implant a chip in them to confirm ownership. But what happens when chips are used to identify humans? Who owns whom? Can your thoughts, in whole or in part, be copied and transferred to another being?