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The Value of Information and the Internet of Things 147

9.2 THE INTERNET OF THINGS AND ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE

IoT is touted as the next wave in the era of computing (Gubbi, Buyya,
Marusic, & Palaniswami, 2013) and has quickly been relabeled the Internet of
Everything (Roy & Chowdhury, 2017). While the definition of the IoT
may take many forms, there is little debate about the enormous amount
of information it will make available (Barnaghi, Sheth, & Henson, 2013;
Papadokostakietal.,2017; Taherkordi, Eliassen, & Horn, 2017) for decision-
related activities. Quoting from Moskowitz, Russell, and Jalaian (2018):
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the realization of interconnected and ubiquitous
computing, pervasive sensing, and autonomous systems that can affect the phys-
ical world. … The “things” that exist in the IoT can be generally thought of as phys-
ical or computational objects that label, sense, communicate, process, or actuate
thereby bridging the physical and virtual worlds (Oriwoh & Conrad, 2015; Pande &
Padwalkar, 2014). While there is no universally accepted definition of the IoT, the
International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sec-
tor (ITU-T) defines the IoT as “a global infrastructure for the information society,
enabling advanced services by interconnecting (physical and virtual) things …”
In Moskowitz et al. (2018), beyond providing a definition of the IoT, the
authors showed how side channels in the IoT architecture can cause infor-
mation to be covertly/steganographically transmitted from one place in the
IoT to another. They argue that IoT will make so much information avail-
able that new threats will emerge from hiding in (information’s) plain sight.
We posit that the amount of available information in the IoT will change
the supply and demand dynamic, resulting in a need for a new understanding
of information’s value. This relationship will likely follow an econometric
view of value, where scarcity increases perceived and/or real value
(Hansen & Serin, 1997; Rymaszewska, Helo, & Gunasekaran, 2017;
Worchel, 1992). What makes the IoT such an interesting arena for VoI
research is that even where the number of bits is the same everywhere in
the IoT, the value of those bits can differ depending upon where and when
you are in a certain location in the IoT. For example, if my smart refrigerator
sends a message that I only have one egg left (extrapolating from Borgonovo,
2017), that information is only valuable to my cook, and it depends upon
what my cook is planning on preparing before going to the market again.
Since I do not cook, that information is of no value to me. However, if
my alarm system sends a message to my smart phone that there is someone
in my house when no one is supposed to be home, that information may be
of some value to my cook, but it is extremely valuable information to me.