Digital Platform Economies: Digital Twins

This panel conversation was part of a recent event hosted by the Platform Economies Research Network (PERN), in collaboration with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. 

The event titled 'Digital Platform Economies: Value from data?' was held at the New School in New York City on 24-26 April 2024. 

This session focuses on digital twins, which are virtual representations tied to physical objects, processes, or environments. Defined by a two-way flow of information, digital twins feed powerful machine-learning operations capable of autonomously monitoring, simulating, and even modulating the ‘real’ world. The aim is to encompass the physical world within interactive monitoring and control systems that promise novel forms of value extraction based on comprehensive, real-time data capture and processing. While the market for digital twins is predicted to grow in value from $10bn to more than $100bn over the next five years, the nature, scope, and viability of digital twins are unclear. This panel asks: How do digital twins generate value? How are they imagined to reshape labor, logistics, and future planning? What regulatory interventions are needed as government and industry are increasingly drawn to the lure of digital platforms for modeling futures and modulating the real? What multidisciplinary methods of analysis and lines of inquiry are relevant to this emerging domain?

Featured in this conversation is ADM+S researchers Zoe Horn, Assoc Prof Michael Richardson, Prof Mark Andrejevic, and moderated by Seyram Avle from PERN.

Learn more about the event: https://www.admscentre.org.au/digital-platform-economies-program/