It’s a brave new world — one of new digital tools, APIs for everything from NSFW photo scans to full representations of human cells and for the first time ever, a globally connected digital economy. New markets are emerging, and new opportunities are being seized — by some.
But what about all the things the free and open internet promised humanity? What about equal access? What about trust and safety?
In the commercial world’s quest for fortune and glory, privileged players have transferred and consolidated power; while individuals and small teams have seen little progress.
In this new digital terrain, engineers across the globe face overwhelming obstacles that come in the form of technical barriers, security concerns, legal and financial complexity and monetization challenges.
On the surface, it seems that what developers around the world have been after — a truly inclusive, level playing field — has been lost.
For example, an individual Mexican software developer who has created the world’s best AI for identifying cancer in medical scans will have a very difficult time realizing any value for their contribution without an enormous amount of time, energy and money spent to provide and monetize his or her API. Just to get started, there would be costly overhead of an identity and subscription management infrastructure, legal contracts with multiple entities, payment in local currency that might not be stable, security risks to mitigate, payment tracking and a litany of people to hire including: accountants, attorneys and a sales team. And if this developer relied on an API or series of APIs created by different developers, in different countries, the challenges become exponentially more difficult and potentially, impossible to overcome.
That’s not so free and open, is it?
But we’re optimistic. We have a new vision. We’ve drawn the blueprint, and we’re committed to the path.
Read more: https://medium.com/aikon/introducing-aikon-324b43ecfaed
