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CIODrive
4 experts weigh in on
AI's role in the US, education
Alex Hickey
It's going to change the world like electricity.
It's going to upend our education system and workforce.
The winner of the race will rule the world.
Artificial intelligence cropped up in discussions across technology,
business, culture and political leaders at The Atlantic Festival 2018
this week in Washington. And according to experts, uncertainty of what
it will truly bring is perhaps the only certainty.
The conversation around AI inevitably contains measures of optimism and
pessimism: The technology is already causing friction in the workforce
and unintended outcomes without explainability. But it also promises
the "fourth industrial revolution," immeasurable innovation and
economic progress and the freeing up of workers from remote, robot-like
labor.
Among the experts weighing in on the technology at the festival, these
four thought leaders offered their perspective on the transformative
powers and reality of AI:
Andrew Ng
Founder and CEO of Landing AI; founder of deeplearning.ai; co-founder
and co-chairman of Coursera
While massive progress has been made in the realm of narrow AI, general
AI is still years away with no clear path or progress, Ng said. The
hype and fear surrounding general AI is "unnecessary."
There has been a concentration of power in the hands of a few, allowing
a small group with top AI talent and capabilities to exert considerable
influence over the rest. But innovation is widespread and easier to
break into than ever, with high schoolers today working on AI projects
that top scientists couldn't have tackled even a few years ago, Ng
said. Open sourcing and the dissemination of information are at the
core of this progress.
Moving forward, help needs to be given to industries outside of
technology working ot embrace AI. The technology industry has
"infected" other sectors, forcing them to undergo rapid changes and
renewals that used to be limited to tech.
In these moments of disruption, leadership is especially important to
manage outcomes and wealth distributions resulting from these changes,
Ng said.
In the international arena, the U.S. is leading China in many areas of
basic AI, though its lead is easier to squander than most people
realize, Ng said. China has succeeded at moving AI products to market
quickly and led in areas including facial recognition and mobile
payments.
Horacio Rozanski
President and CEO of Booz Allen Hamilton
The scale needed to develop advanced AI technologies is lower, and as a
result the U.S. is up against many competitors and adversaries in a
race it doesn't have the 10 to 20 year head start it has benefited from
in many other industries, Rozanski said on Wednesday. The U.S. needs to
develop the technology in a way that people can trust it.
In fields such as language processing and understanding, within the
next few years AI-based technology will allow individuals to
communicate in the language they need regardless of the other
conversation party.
When it comes to ordering at a restaurant, the stakes may be lower, but
a high degree of trust is needed for situations that might involve
interactions with international leaders and security, he said. But the
capabilities are more a dawning reality than a hypothetical.
Dean Garfield
President and CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council
Garfield emphasized the need for strong investment in AI R&D, while
speaking at the festival on Tuesday.
China is currently benefiting from a strong national strategy
emphasizing technology progress; while the U.S. has a unique
collaboration between public, private and academia, it would be well
served with more coordinated AI development and innovation, he said.
It's also important not to consider AI a zero-sum game, he said.
Progress by the U.S. and China will benefit the larger ecosystem and
each player.
Victoria Espinel
President and CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance
There are scores of individuals looking to enter technology, but many
are failing to connect to educational and training opportunities,
especially free ones, available in the market, according to Espinel,
speaking at a panel on Tuesday. Building up platforms and resources to
connect these potential workers to companies is critical.
The majority of children in school now will have jobs as adults that do
not currently exist in the market, Espinel said.
Traditional educational pathways need to be rethought and redeveloped,
according panelists. Just because the future at the hands of changing
technologies like AI is unclear doesn't mean that as a society we
shouldn't start reworking education and creating opportunities for the
future, she said.
Fellow panelist James Wilson, managing director of AI research at
Accenture Research, noted that in a document on the future of education
moving through Congress right now, AI isn't mentioned once.
Read this article with tweets at CIODrive
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