Data is here to stay, and so is AI. We live in a world where datafication and the hype around AI continues to exponentially grow. Our responsibility as common-good driven organizations is to continue work towards enabling responsible, systematic, and sustainable data governance mechanisms; something we refer to as data stewardship. As our data stewards community continues to grow, our engagement “Data Stewardship Trends to Watch” series remains constant. On a bi-monthly basis, Stefaan Verhulst (Co-founder of The GovLab and The Data Tank) goes over emerging trends in data stewardship. 

On October 1st, Stefaan led a session that discussed a variety of topics including:

• New developments on data intermediaries and non-traditional datasets

• People-led data innovations

• The use of data and technology for peace

• Emerging uses of technology

• Changes in policy at the national, supranational, and international level.

Check out a recording of the full conversation here. The following resources were discussed during the session:

Data Developments

• Government responses to Data Intermediaries

• National statistical agencies as trust intermediaries

• Using population movement data for digital government

• Using remotely sensed data to assess war damage

• The value of official government economic data over alternatives

People-Led Data Initiatives

• Crowdsourced data from 7,000 slums around the world

• An effort to use a voice data commons for humanitarian response in Malawi

• A proposal for rethinking official statistics for the 21st century

• An effort to launch a decentralized, artist-owned data trust

Data for Peace and Tech

• An incubator dedicated to strengthening pro-human rights projects, starting with Palestine

• An overview of the 2025 Kluz Prize for PeaceTech

Emerging Tech Developments

• The world’s first national AI agent for government service delivery

• The ethical challenges presented by “Diella”, Albania’s AI minister

• The need for new ethics for a world of AI agents

Policy Developments

• A UN resolution on the establishment of an independent international panel on AI governance

• Terms of reference for the independent international panel on AI governance

• Reflections ahead of the UN’s Global Dialogue on AI Governance

• A press release on the EU Data Act

• An analysis of the B2G data-sharing mechanism in the EU Data Act

 

Interested to learn more about data stewardship trends? Sign up for the Data Stewards Network mailing at this link. Or contact datastewards@thegovlab.org to learn more.