Fivetran and dbt Labs set out 5 public policy principles for data and AI

Why the company is weighing in

Handy opens by describing how far AI has moved. Early versions were impressive but disconnected from tools and data, he writes. GPT-3.5, in his example, could not consistently add 2+2 or report on current events, yet wrote competent literary criticism based on its extensive training on academic writing.

Since then, he says, the industry has worked to bridge AI and data. Companies large and small now deploy agents throughout their operations. These agents can access enterprise data to help people make decisions and, increasingly, take direct action on behalf of users. His example: when a flight is canceled, an airline's AI agent can find another flight, rebook the ticket and send a new boarding pass, without the customer calling support.

Handy adds that agents are also being deployed to consumers and will increasingly gain access to highly sensitive personal data. He says he recently connected his watch's health metrics and his financial data to his personal agent, and that he expects billions more people to do the same.

The five principles

According to Fivetran + dbt Labs, the entire business of the company is to connect data with AI, and there are "real right and wrong ways" to do it. The company proposes these principles:

• People come first: people should know how their data is used and be able to access or delete it, and everyone who handles it should protect it.
• Your data, your choice: data should stay in the control of those who create and rely on it, not the systems that store it. Switching providers should not mean losing data or paying unreasonable fees to get it back.
• Open by default: data should be portable, not trapped in closed formats or systems. Open standards, the company says, keep markets competitive and give new ideas a real chance.
• Trusted data is the foundation: reliable, well-governed data is what makes AI and every other technology accountable.
• Rules that work for everyone: privacy and data rules should protect people everywhere without creating costs only the largest companies can afford.

On the last point, the post argues that good rules can be sophisticated without being complicated, so that a 5-person startup can follow them as easily as a global enterprise.

What it means for the debate

The post places the principles within the wider public conversation about safe and ethical AI use. Fivetran + dbt Labs says it believes AI will continue to progress, reshaping infrastructure and jobs, and that alignment will be hard but achievable. Handy writes that navigating these challenges will take sustained effort and attention from the public, industry and policymakers.

The company's argument is that data is the common thread. While public attention is on what AI can do, it wants equal attention on the data foundation that makes it possible. Its closing line sums up the position: "getting AI right means getting data right."

The principles accompany a new public policy initiative at Fivetran + dbt Labs. The company says it will keep building on them as the conversation evolves, and it points readers to a separate page for more detail on the initiative. The post does not describe specific legislation, targets or timelines.