‘AI Is Built Around the User’: Fraser Edwards on How To Repair the Broken Data Economy

• In an exclusive interview with CCN, Fraser Edwards explains how the Sovereign AI Alliance plans to rebuild the digital economy around user ownership.
• Most AI systems rely on extracting user data, often without clear consent, and convert it into corporate profit, leaving users with little control or benefit.
• The Sovereign AI Alliance proposes a decentralized, open-source infrastructure where users own and control both their data and AI agents.

In today’s digital world, data is currency, yet most internet users unknowingly give it away for free.

This structural imbalance inspired Fraser Edwards, Co-Founder and CEO of blockchain-based digital identity firm cheqd, along with leaders from DataHive, Nuklai, and Datagram, to launch the Sovereign AI Alliance (SAIA).

This ambitious coalition seeks to rewrite the rules of the AI-driven digital economy by building a decentralized, open-source infrastructure that enables users to own their data and AI agents, reclaiming control from Big Tech.

What Is the Sovereign AI Alliance?

According to Edwards, the current data economy is fundamentally exploitative.

“Platforms operate sophisticated systems that extract both consciously shared data and unconscious behavioral signals, while users face convoluted privacy policies that obscure rather than inform,” he explains.

In essence, users generate the data that fuels multi-billion-dollar enterprises but receive minimal control or compensation.

To address this, SAIA was founded by cheqd, DataHive, Nuklai, and Datagram, with each company contributing a crucial component:

• cheqd offers decentralized identity infrastructure.
• DataHive focuses on self-sovereign data storage and personal AI.
• Nuklai provides blockchain infrastructure for collaborative data ecosystems.
• Datagram develops decentralized data transport protocols with user-controlled permissions.

Their solution: the Intention Network Protocol (INP), a decentralized system designed to enable AI interactions while ensuring data ownership remains with the user.

“This isn’t just a technical alternative,” Edwards told CCN, “it’s a fundamentally different vision for how digital technologies can empower, rather than exploit, human agency in an AI-driven world.”

From Extraction to Empowerment

In traditional AI systems, user data is collected and stored in centralized databases, often without meaningful consent. These systems prioritize corporate objectives, not individual interests.

“Users pay with their personal data, which is extracted, aggregated, and commodified,” Edwards said.

SAIA’s framework seeks to reverse this by making the user, not the corporation, the core of the AI system, both functionally and economically.

SAIA envisions AI agents that operate solely on data users explicitly authorize, which will enable personalization without surveillance.

“Rather than siphoning off information for external profit, AI operates only on data that the user explicitly authorizes and for purposes aligned with the user’s intent,” Edwards explained.

He added, “This creates a paradigm where the AI is built around the user, not built to exploit them.”

Monetizing Data On User Terms

A central component of the SAIA model is allowing users to financially benefit from their data.

Rather than companies profiting from behavioral insights while offering “free” services as the only compensation, SAIA will enable individuals to license their data for specific uses and durations.

“User-owned data frameworks create direct financial pathways back to individuals,” said Edwards.

This could include licensing shopping preferences to marketers or contributing feedback to train AI models.

“This ‘data-as-a-service’ model transforms personal information from a one-time exploitative asset into a renewable resource that generates ongoing income—without surrendering ownership,” he added.

cheqd’s micropayment infrastructure allows compensation even for small data contributions.

“When users retain sovereignty over their data, they can negotiate better terms with service providers, demanding genuine value exchange,” said Edwards.

In practice, this could mean subscription discounts, premium features, or direct payments in exchange for controlled data access.

AI Alliance vs. Big Tech

Edwards acknowledges Big Tech’s scale and resources but argues that their ad-driven business models limit them.

“It’s difficult for companies reliant on surveillance to build AI that truly serves individuals while preserving privacy,” he said.

“No single company—not even the largest tech conglomerates—has comprehensive access to the distributed information needed to deliver truly personalized AI.”

By enabling users to aggregate their own data, from health and finance to education, SAIA imagines a new category of personal AI assistants that operate on a full, user-governed view of a user’s digital life.

These AI agents would act privately and transparently, without the need for intrusive tracking or opaque data-sharing policies.

“This flips the power dynamic,” Edwards said. “Instead of companies racing to extract data from users, they’ll compete to offer the best services to users who control their own data.”

Scaling the Vision

Building decentralized systems that are high-performing and scalable is no easy task. Regulatory alignment also remains complex, as existing laws often assume centralized data controllers, not distributed ownership.

Despite this, the alliance is confident.

Their development roadmap includes decentralized data protocols, agent-to-agent transaction infrastructure, open-source AI models, and governance frameworks to prevent future centralization.

Edwards envisions a world where users can easily reclaim and share their data between services.

“We want a world where people can take their credentials with them—across platforms, across ecosystems,” he said.

“That means moving past today’s siloed model where data is locked inside corporate systems, to a future where individuals decide where and how their data is used.”

Looking ahead five years, success would mean widespread adoption of the INP, a new class of personal AI agents, and an economy where people are compensated for the value their data generates.

“For users, success means truly helpful AI assistants that act as digital extensions of themselves—not as tools of corporate surveillance,” Edwards said.

“Perhaps the most profound aspect of the SAIA model is its ability to transform AI from something that happens to us into something that happens for us—and through us,” he told CCN.

As AI continues to reshape society, the Sovereign AI Alliance offers an alternative path. One that, if successful, could redefine the relationship between people, technology, and power in the digital era.