Razor Insights
AI + E(mpathy)
AI + E(mpathy)
Razor’s CEO & Founder, Jamie Hinton spoke at the AI and Leaders summit as part of the AI Tech North Innovation Exchange, focused on sharing challenges and solutions to AI adoption in business.
In true Razor fashion, Jamie spoke about the big picture for AI - the reality of a human future living and thriving alongside AI and how our own evolution comes into play.
For leaders in technology facing questions, doubts and scepticism towards the technology, here’s a quickfire round-up of Jamie’s inspiration and insights.
SPOILER ALERT: AI might not take over the world just yet.
Why is AI important?
AI has the power to change everything. It has the ability to polarise our thinking and perspectives...and it will go at speed. Faster than anything we have ever seen before.
AI and the Global Picture
What good is AI doing in the world?
AI is helping us in areas that we don’t excel at. We humans are pretty good at many things and also could be a lot better at others.
Many say that humans are the creative ones and that is true but even right now, AI can help us out. It can inspire us to do better.
I have seen machine learning models that work with music artists to great rhythms, loops and riffs and the combination is amazing!
The design of buildings and structures is also where AI is amplifying what we do by bringing completely different perspectives and thinking.
Where are humans on our AI technology journey?
We are currently in a time of narrow AI. These are the types of functions that we are seeing amplify our everyday tasks.
These are the types of advances that we need to be taking advantage of now to form our future.
These are the elements that give you a competitive advantage.
General AI is able to do all of these things and do it in a far superior way to us.
Great examples are speech interfaces like…
- Google assistant
- Tesla's autopilot mode
- Gmail’s autocomplete when writing emails
Go from a Tech Leader to an AI Leader
What AI leaders must do...
We have to be clear in our messaging.
We have to get people on board first.
We have to create a picture of the future that is brighter and that people are still valuable. Technology is only making them better, faster and more consistent.
For AI to truly work we need to accept it...
We have to build trust in data and AI.
We can’t go steam rollering in and change everything.
Just like any successful digital transformation project we have to start with people.
How do you start implementing?
There are three broad ingredients to successfully delivering an data-related project, these are:
Data - Probably not enough, maybe not the right data
Interface - You must consider how people will interact with it
People - Try to make it as seamless as possible so people don’t have to change too much
Have empathy
We have to have empathy for how AI is going to impact people.
We also have to have empathy on how to navigate the journey. We need to be understanding of how we go about implementing it. It’s important to know that it isn’t always easy.
Implementing an AI tool is not a case of plugging in a ‘new box’ and job done - it is more involved than that.
Why does this matter to our business community in the North?
If we don’t embrace new technology, especially the technology that can amplify and accelerate what we already do, we are going to get left behind. If we do that we won’t have much of a future right here.
We need to act now to ensure that the humble brilliance of the northern people isn’t lost. We need to act now so that our children and our children's children have a future and a future that is cleaner, more efficient and more packed with fun than ours.
Things to remember
We are all on a journey and there are risks to everything that we do.
The risks of doing nothing are far greater than the risks of doing something.
We have to empathise with the initiatives.
Take an attitude that even failures are valuable, we just found out that an approach didn’t work which is useful - now time to try a different one.
If you think you have tried everything - think again because if you had tried everything you would have the answer.
Start small and make little bets. Don’t go all in straight away. Find something that works or has the potential to make a really big difference and then go all in.
Start with people and have empathy with them.
Watch Jamie’s full presentation here: