When the trial is over

In this response, I revisit the arguments of ‘Testing-in-the-wild: innovation nationalism and the colonial dynamics of new technology testbeds’ and engage with the generous commentaries offered by Maya Hojer Bruun, Adolfo Estalella, Rakesh Kumar, Jack Stilgoe and Julia Velkova. In addition to these commentaries, I also respond to changes in the commercial operations of the drone delivery company Wing in Australia – namely, its sudden departure and what this means for Australia’s productivity-through-AI innovation dream. The essay is structured around four key questions raised through the commentaries: 1) What do experiments do?; (2) Data colonialism or colonialism-as-usual?; 3) What are our obligations? and (4) What happens when the trial is over?