In early December, Meraki Executive Search & Consulting and our partner HSBC hosted the latest Meraki Leadership Series event, on the ‘Future of AI’. Our speaker for the evening was the brilliant Catherine Yang, Founding Partner of Changcheng Investment Partners, China's biggest Investment Fund into AI technologies (backed by cornerstone investor Baidu).
We were joined by an impressive group of clients and contacts to debate the impact of Artificial Intelligence on work and society - the opportunities, risks and threats.
Key insights from Catherine on this topic:
- AI’s positive impact
The ground-breaking strides being made in banking, insurance, education, healthcare, autonomous modes of transport, connected homes and cities due to AI. Every part of our lives is now impacted by AI, whether we realise it or not. Catherine went on to explain how much AI is already used in certain sectors already in China (90% of one of the top 3 bank’s call centres is now driven by AI).
- AI’s permeation of our lives
We also discussed concerns surrounding data privacy, ethics and biases. As humans we each have our personal biases and as we teach computers to learn, so too do they learn our biases. How can we control who has access to our data when we are not even certain what is being tracked. Catherine shared that all the top players including Google, Baidu and others are working together to try to set parameters for the ethics of AI.
- Technological Singularly and what that means for humankind
As we head towards the idea of technological singularity and the birth of an Artificial Super Intelligence – we discussed what this potentially means for the world. Will the speed with which AI evolves render us subservient to a higher form of intelligence? This future could become reality within the next few decades – are we prepared for this as business leaders and contributors to society? How can we ensure our children are ready for an uncertain future? Catherine’s shared that schools in China now have AI as a core subject for all primary and secondary schools.
Thank you to everyone who came and joined in this essential discussion. As business leaders we need to prepare ourselves for the technological change that is coming. There is a very important on-going discussion to be had...
We look forward to hearing your insights on this topic to continue to raise awareness and understanding of the impact of AI.