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Data is the New Solar and Context is the Product — scharf blog

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In 2006, Clive Humby famously declared that “data is the new oil.” This cliche has been a useful metaphor for understanding the value, and limitations, of data in technology but it’s time for a new one. Just as the world is moving on from fossil fuels, we too must move on – in the era of generative AI, the most powerful data, contextual user data or edge data, is more akin to solar than it is to oil. Let me expand. Historically, both oil and data have only been available to those with large-scale infrastructure and specialized equipment. Oil is useful once refined into a usable product like gasoline, and data is most useful when used to train ML models deployed at scale. A small amount of oil or data, does not a company make. Further, even once refined, the byproducts of both, gasoline and ML models respectively, are most powerful when used as specialized tools. It’s much more efficient to power a car with gasoline directly than it is to turn it into electricity to power an electric ca

In 2006, Clive Humby famously declared that “data is the new oil.” This cliche has been a useful metaphor for understanding the value, and limitations, of data in technology but it’s time for a new one. Just as the world is moving on from fossil fuels, we too must move on – in the era of generative AI, the most powerful data, contextual user data or edge data, is more akin to solar than it is to oil. Let me expand. Historically, both oil and data have only been available to those with large-scale infrastructure and specialized equipment. Oil is useful once refined into a usable product like ga

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