Reflection and Dual Reconstruction of Data Rights in the Intelligent Computing Era: An Investigation Based on Evolution of Data Value Realization Paths

The development of computing technology, as the direct driver for data’s rise to become a factor of production, determines the value realization path of data, and changes in the data value realization path, in turn, affect the construction of data rights. The paths of data value realization differ under different computing technology backgrounds. In the era of network computing, due to the specialization of algorithms and the contextual nature of data value, data value has to be realized through market transactions. With the advent of the intelligent computing era, large models can extract and transform data value, enabling its realization through model sharing. Between these two distinct paths of data value realization, the model-sharing path offers significant advantages such as greater convenience and lower technical barriers, making it more conducive to data value realization. The approaches to constructing data rights also differ under these two distinct value realization paths. In the network computing era, as data value requires market transactions, data rights confirmation follow the “empowerment-circulation” approach, which implicitly involves two objectives: distributive justice and transactional efficiency. However, distributive justice and transaction efficiency are often at odds with each other, making it difficult to achieve both simultaneously. In the intelligent computing era, within the practical demands of the model-sharing path of data value realization, the ultimate focuses of justice and efficiency converge, with the core lying in the realization of distributive justice. This should be achieved through a dual rights framework of “possession-benefit.” Possession rights refer to relatively limited weak exclusive rights granted to data holders—after substantive review and registration—in terms of exclusivity, scope of the object, and content of rights. Benefit rights are a novel form of property right, built upon possession rights, wherein data holders are entitled to the incremental value generated from the data, modeled after an open market framework.