“Follow the money.” Deep Throat, All The President’s Men
In the movie Sabrina, Tom Fairchild is a chauffeur to successful business leader Linus Larrabee. Toward the end of the movie, Fairchild informs his daughter that he has amassed a personal wealth of over $2 million because he listened to business dealings as he drove. When Larrabee bought stock, he would buy too; when Larrabee sold, he sold.
I never forgot that scene. It’s behind my own success. Where are the wealthy putting their money and energy? Where are they not?
Pricewaterhouse Cooper (PwC) recently announced that they will invest 1 billion dollars into AI capabilities.
Deloitte is putting 1.4 billion dollars towards tech development of which AI is a part (though they decline to state how much).
Venture capitalists invested 1.7 billion dollars into generative AI startups in the first quarter alone, and there is another 10 billion that has been announced but not yet disbursed.
In a recent earnings call, Alphabet mentioned the phrase AI 52 times.
Warnings Are One Thing, Dollars Are Another
We hear the warnings that are being sounded about AI. They are not without merit. But investors have a belief in the innate sense of humans to figure things out toward the beneficial and away from the cataclysmic.
Joe Akinson, PwC vice chair and CTO says, “We truly believe that AI is going to be transformative to industries in the way work gets done…We view ourselves as having a responsibility to help our clients navigate that as well as help our people navigate that.”
Considering that 9 of 10 hiring companies are now looking for workers with ChatGPT experience, Joe and PwC are ahead of the pack.
Two words are consistently coming up in articles and research: power and responsibility.
Joe Akinson referred to it; AI is transformative to work, and a responsibility to navigate.
Power Trips
AI is being used in fascinating ways. Be My Eyes is using GPT-4 to increase visual accessibility for the blind and impaired.
Stripe is using AI to streamline their user experience and to combat fraud.
Yabble is deriving fast insights from customer feedback; Iceland is using GPT-4 to preserve its language.
Even as I write, you are likely working with your teams to discover the best use of AI to increase productivity.
Red Lights
But all is not glory. Iterative deployment is called for. AI, without guardrails, is a threat to:
- Respect of persons
- Violation of privacy
- Propagation of falsehood
- Fostering bias
And we haven’t even begun to dive into the ethical considerations of worker replacement, user misuse, and apocalyptic forecasts.
A Simple Guideline For Strong Guardrails
You may have seen this picture in an earlier post of mine this week.
"Welding an excavator to a Ferrari doesn’t make a machine that can dig roads at 200mph. It makes something that can’t do either job properly." Dave Trott
Two things apply here in our AI adoption (or lack thereof):
Where less is more, stop adding (don't encumber).
When slow is fast, stop rushing (don't overlook).
AI is a Ferrari. It is meant to fly. You must govern it, but you can’t encumber it. AI is deep. You can’t rush it and miss out on its capabilities, but, more importantly, its capabilities in your context.
Two very key questions:
- How is fear affecting your company’s adoption or governance of AI? (Fear holds back).
- How is forward-thinking driving your company to be deliberate in research, debate and iterative implementation? (Forward thinking paces itself).
As you push AI adoption ahead, the numbers are in your favor. Big money wouldn’t be going after empty promises.
Put your mouth where their money is.
