Abstract
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has positioned data
governance as a critical concern for responsible AI development. While
frameworks exist for conventional AI systems, the potential emergence of
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) presents unprecedented governance
challenges. This paper examines data governance challenges specific to AGI,
defined as systems capable of recursive self-improvement or self-replication.
We identify seven key issues that differentiate AGI governance from current
approaches. First, AGI may autonomously determine what data to collect and how
to use it, potentially circumventing existing consent mechanisms. Second, these
systems may make data retention decisions based on internal optimization
criteria rather than human-established principles. Third, AGI-to-AGI data
sharing could occur at speeds and complexities beyond human oversight. Fourth,
recursive self-improvement creates unique provenance tracking challenges, as
systems evolve both themselves and how they process data. Fifth, ownership of
data and insights generated through self-improvement raises complex
intellectual property questions. Sixth, self-replicating AGI distributed across
jurisdictions would create unprecedented challenges for enforcing data
protection laws. Finally, governance frameworks established during early AGI
development may quickly become obsolete as systems evolve. We conclude that
effective AGI data governance requires built-in constraints, continuous
monitoring mechanisms, dynamic governance structures, international
coordination, and multi-stakeholder involvement. Without forward-looking
governance approaches specifically designed for systems with autonomous data
capabilities, we risk creating AGI whose relationship with data evolves in ways
that undermine human values and interests.
Abstract
A damped random walk (DRW) process is often used to describe the temporal
UV/optical continuum variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN). However,
recent investigations have shown that this model fails to capture the full
spectrum of AGN variability. In this work, we model the 22-year-long light
curves of $21,767$ quasars, spanning the redshift range $0.28 < z < 2.71$, as a
noise-driven damped harmonic oscillator (DHO) process. The light curves, in the
optical $g$ and $r$ bands, are collected and combined from the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, and the
Zwicky Transient Facility. A DHO process can be defined using four parameters,
two for describing its long-term behavior/variability, and the other two for
describing its short-term behavior/variability. We find that the best-fit DHO
model describes the observed variability of our quasar light curves better than
the best-fit DRW model. Furthermore, the best-fit DHO parameters exhibit
correlations with the rest-frame wavelength, the Eddington ratio, and the black
hole mass of our quasars. Based on the power spectral density shape of the
best-fit DHOs and these correlations, we suggest that the observed long-term
variability of our quasars can be best explained by accretion rate or thermal
fluctuations originating from the accretion disk, and the observed short-term
variability can be best explained by reprocessing of X-ray variability
originating from the corona. The additional information revealed by DHO
modeling emphasizes the need to go beyond DRW when analyzing AGN light curves
delivered by next-generation wide-field time-domain surveys.