Secret meeting of the European Commission in Brussels.
I was once called to Brussels to a secret meeting of the European Commission.
As it is secret, I can’t tell you what I went for.
But I can tell you that I was bored out of my mind.
Everything was gray, slow and imprecise.
The grayest, slowest and most vague of all was me.
The rain and that Belgian beer with more degrees than rum didn’t help.
Neither did a relatively young gentleman who interrupted my intervention, very red and angry with what I was saying.
It was clear that for his bureaucratic taste he was not using enough circumlocutions and periphrases.
Perhaps, maybe, it would be possible, there are potential situations in which.
I was not using the language of Brussels.
It was quite a contrast to the European tone, I say, my sloppy language.
Insolent, one might say.
But it turns out that we entrepreneurs have to pay salaries out of our own pockets, not those of the Europeans, so we have to speak clearly.
Well, I’m off the subject.
We don’t cry, we accept and move on.
The interesting thing about the GDPR position, made in Europe, is that it has one thing which is the principle of data minimization.
Which means that you always have to use as little data as possible.
And you might have realized by now that that goes directly in the opposite direction to big data and therefore to AI.
And therefore, the world.
In other words, if you want to find new variables and new biomarkers, you are less likely to do so the less data you put in.
The principle of data minimization does not apply to us.
And at some point they will figure it out.
But while they do, we have found a formula.
It hasn’t been easy. It’s taken us two years.
But we have a formula that helps us comply perfectly with the Law, but still have the benefits of working with massive data.
P.S. My intervention was more liked than I thought it would be when I left there, since they asked me for the presentation. And of course, I was happy to send it to them with the file name “bold statements”.