AI thinks. Therefore AI am.
Had a fantastic first day at the Cogx23 festival, yesterday. With such a huge range of speakers, a lot of topics were covered, but there were definitely some common themes coming through:
♻️Climate Change
A number of speakers touched on AI’s use in the climate front. From more timely weather predictions, to greener travel routes, through to a new product called Winder (think of it as Tinder for wind) – a new platform that matches community support for wind turbines with grid connectivity and land availability. It’s clear that AI can be used to support existing businesses, but can also be used to develop new businesses and business models.
⏱️ AI Offers a Variety of Value
Whilst this goes without saying, I attended talks given by start-ups through to large corporates, covering sectors from healthcare, to automotive, to food and energy. It’s clear that there are so many use cases for these models; they can be used to help people work faster and better, to get more done, to get people started when they’re stuck and to help people do more by themselves.
And with the use of 🗣️natural language prompts, it looks like more people will be able to investigate masses of data with ease.
But, with any transformative technology it needs to be used with care. That’s why there was also a call for governance, ethical use, and regulation.
🌎 Governance, Ethics and Regulation
There was recognition for strong governance and regulation around use of such a transformative technology, with many speakers also touching on the ethics of its use and the autonomy of these models. This seems to echo similar sentiments shared at the G20 summit, a few days ago, where there was a call for a commitment to collaborate across borders, and for the application of global governance, such as via an international oversight body, similar to the IPCC.
Finally, in what can only be the tech industry’s equivalent to, ‘which came first, the chicken or egg?’ I’ve been left wondering, ‘Which is more important, the model or the data?
