Artificial intelligence is among the hottest topics across industries, and the advances in its use are stunning. As the pace of innovation quickens, however, there is worry about issues of privacy and quality in the use if AI. Earlier this month, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Bank of America announced the formation of The Council on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a new effort to address critical questions surrounding this far-reaching and rapidly evolving application for data and technology. In a press release, Dan Schrag, Co-Director of the Belfer Center’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program noted, “Artificial intelligence and machine learning have potential to improve our lives in all sorts of exciting ways, but there are also risks. The Council will help investigate how to use these technologies in a responsible manner across various domains.”
Bank of America's sponsor for this initiative is Cathy Bessant, the company's Chief Operations and Technology Officer. She has long been passionate about AI, a topic we discussed in an interview we did last June. I caught up with Bessant just after the announcement to better understand what she hopes will be accomplished through this partnership.
Peter High: Bank of America, along with Harvard University, recently announced the Council on the Responsible Use of AI. Could you talk about the genesis of this idea?
Bank Of America's Ai Powered Virtual Assistant Erica
Cathy Bessant: At Davos in 2017, the discussion around tech started to morph from cybersecurity, which had been the maniacal focus for at least the previous two years, to data and algorithms. People are beginning to use the term artificial intelligence, but it is not well understood in the mainstream. Probably 18 months ago, I started thinking about the implications of this and the potential uses for artificial intelligence. As a person who has always been a student of statistics and a student of people, I started to think about what happens when I am the subject of outcomes that are created by someone I will never know. As a control freak, that is a complete anathema.
Even in financial services where we have been looking at capital and stress test planning without regulators for four or five years, we must think about how we source and ensure the accuracy of our data. I became acutely aware of how we apply models and model risk management to this generation of capital outcomes. This notion of what is artificial intelligence and what it means in the future became relevant.
A huge piece of this is my own workforce here at Bank of America. They started to say, This burgeoning field of AI, what does it mean for us as workers? Is technology going to replace us? My study became a real function of, in the face of ever-increasing technological change, how do we keep a workforce engaged and motivated? How are we thinking proactively about career development and career transformation? Can somebody who processes manually today learn artificial intelligence, or learn how to manage a team of bots or machines that create outcomes in place of people doing so? There are several different paths.
How 'erica A Conversational Ai Agent' Helped Power A 19% Spike In Earnings At Bank Of America
We approached Harvard a little over six months ago. I was worried about pursuing answers to some of the questions that I knew were out there about the deployment of AI. I had become worried about approaching that as a single company. I was worried both about the myopia of view, but also, I was worried about people's perception of our motivation.
Though we had the highest motivation as a commercial enterprise, we may not always be perceived as having the proper motivation. I knew that we needed to convene a group of unusual suspects because a multidisciplinary approach is the only way to get at this. The idea was to partner with someone who already has a thought about digital public policy. We did a full analysis of the market like you would expect of good bankers. Our conclusion was that the real leaders in the digital public policy space with a global perspective are at Harvard.
We approached Harvard, and they immediately took the idea further than I could have thought about. I knew they were the right leaders. They clearly had an agenda that even without us they would have pursued. I thought that the idea of having an independent academic perspective as the leader of the effort brought the right objectivity and the right focus on process and inclusion versus the perception of a predetermined outcome, which you think of as a risk. I was so impressed with the brain power to lead this that Harvard became the natural owner of the Council.
Trustworthy Ai: A Business Guide For Navigating Trust And Ethics In Ai: Ammanath, Beena: 9781119867920: Amazon.com: Books
High: What bodies within Harvard are involved in this? One of the important aspects of AI is it is multidisciplinary. As you alluded to, one of the advantages of engaging a university is that all those disciplines co-mingle. Is your experience with Harvard that they are bringing together all those different aspects into the room to make sure that it is that multidisciplinary approach?
Bessant: They have a body of work called Digital HKS, which is Digital Harvard Kennedy School. They have already done a tremendous amount of work around the multi-disciplines residents in Harvard and how they were connected in the realm of artificial intelligence. They have had this practice that combined digital and public policy and multidisciplinary thinking for a long time.
What impressed me a great deal was that they were immediately thinking about other academic institutions they might involve. To me, that is what leadership is all about. There was not a moment of hoarding. There was the immediate, Well, we could pull in this institution. We should pull in that leader from that institution. I was very impressed that in their DNA was this notion of impartial collaboration across multiple disciplines.
How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Banking
It is almost a psychological journey to say, Wait a minute, the importance is not predetermining the outcome. I have learned in my civic work that the best civic work is undertaken by a small group of thoughtful citizens in the room with a proper objective to change the world. You do not determine in advance how that needs to happen.
I am very outcome focused. My first milestone creation for the concept was determining that Harvard will lead it and that we would be the founder. Determining that set of relationships is very important. We are currently announcing the creation of the Council, and we hope to have our first meeting later in the year.
We must figure out what public engagement comes from those meetings. Are they private meetings? Do they produce a written outcome? Do they produce a series of discussions? That is yet to be determined, but I can tell from the last 24 hours that we will have to sort out what the public dialogue is. If this is kept as a closed-door process, it will not carry the same significance or the opportunity for engagement that an open discourse would have.
Bank Of America's Ai Assistant Is Ready To Help With Your Finances
High: Are there other members of Bank of America who are going to be involved? Do you see this as a regular rhythm of the contribution of the broader team in some way?
Bessant: I do. The first time that I started talking about it with our CEO's direct reports – my peers – Sheri Bronstein, our head of Human Resources, sent me a note saying she would like to be involved in this. She said, “Here are two or three things that I have been thinking about, so as this progresses, keep me in the loop. There have been others, but I think the notion that a human resource executive would immediately say, Look, there are connection points here is telling.
High: One of the things I find fascinating about AI is, as you point out, there are already profound implications to the advances in AI in recent years. There is also this vision of artificial general intelligence of having computing that can replicate the human brain. As you think about that evolution across the decades, there is a lot in the exhaust of that research, and it has been interesting to see the different approaches. I have done a series on AI with the founders of a variety of different elite AI institutions and it has been fascinating to see that super forward thinking. In some cases, they are thinking centuries beyond the lifespan of the people who are running these initiatives. It is interesting to think about the short-term ramifications, but also the long-term opportunities and threats associated with this.
Who We Are
In the past, we have spoken about some of the safety implications of this. Additionally, as you rightly point out the societal and employment implications are huge, which no doubt is part of what your HR executive must be interested in. How are you leveling your own expectations and educating yourself on some of those same issues?
Bessant: I believe it is time that we re-balance the discussion from being driven by the creators and the sellers of artificial intelligence to being balanced with the
Posting Komentar untuk "Responsible Ai Bank Of America"