Aspects of Ownership Rights of Data and the Global Distribution of Wealth Generated by Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems now shape core aspects of everyday life and the global economy. They learn from huge volumes of data, generate new data through use, and produce outputs that themselves can be monetised. Yet the law does not treat “data” as a single object that someone simply owns. Instead, control over data sits at the intersection of intellectual property, data protection, trade secrecy, contract and sector-specific rules. This article makes three main claims. First, “data generated by AI” is not one thing but a bundle of very different kinds of data, each treated differently under existing legal regimes. Second, taken together, current rules tend to concentrate control and value in the hands of a small group of powerful firms and countries, reinforcing what many scholars describe as “data colonialism”. Third, if the world is serious about reducing the global inequality that AI may deepen, we need both clearer domestic rules on data rights and international mechanisms for sharing some of the wealth created by AI. The article concludes by sketching elements of a fairer governance model: stronger user and community rights in data, targeted data-sharing obligations, a global AI fund and data framework, and closer links between AI governance, competition law, taxation and environmental justice.