equitably.ai at Bayes Innovate where Bayes Business School hosts professional leaders and entrepreneurs to explore the best ways to tackle the problems facing the business world.
equitably.ai founders Dr. Tillman Wayde and John Paul Danaee moderate and contribute to a lively panel discussion debating how AI use grows and potential impacts of AI on businesses, investors and society at Bayes Business School, City, University of London. For a summary of the panel discussion with supporting statistics on the AI market see our blog AI use grows.
Bayes Innovate Conference
For a full summary of the conference see Bayes Business School here. For video highlights see below.
AI use grows. equitably.ai directors Dr. Tillman Wayde and John Paul Danaee were delighted to join Zoe Peden, Partner at Ananda Impact Ventures and Vikas Nair, Co-founder of Openlayer to moderate and contribute to a lively panel discussion about AI use made popular recently by Chat GPT and potential impacts on businesses, investors and society during the annual Bayes Innovate conference at Bayes Business School, City, University of London.
Panel discussion summary
The panel discussion title was “The race to put AI to work. A tipping point or hype for businesses and ESG?” set out to debate if AI is at a tipping point, the impact of AI on industries and business, and the equality and ethical considerations of AI given the ESG theme of the conference. Below is a summary of some of the key topics and points discussed by the panel.1
Growth in AI use at tipping point
ChatGPT, the application from OpenAI that a UBS study has estimated to have been the fastest-growing consumer application in history, has brought AI to the attention of the masses.
Bill Gates believes that “the development of AI is as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone” and that AI will change the way people work, learn, travel, get health care, and communicate with each other and that entire industries will be “reorienting” around AI. Wharton management professor Ethan Mollick believes that ChatGPT is a “tipping point” in application of AI to business.
Views of the panel included that we are past the tipping point, and the return on investment (ROI) and value from AI have already been proven as evidenced by growth in number of AI startups and growth in funding for AI (see graph). However, there may be an element of the tipping point being the perception of AI, which has and will lead to more investment, development, and research.
Members of the panel confirmed they have seen evidence of the impact of AI in various sectors and domains, including manufacturing, retail, health, education, professional services like marketing, investments and the environment. However, there was a view that industries will be affected in different ways and at different speeds (see graph showing potential productivity impact of AI by industry).
Specific examples of AI applications mentioned by the panel included: mental health, biodiversity, wildfire prevention, antibiotic resistance, digital pathology, banking, e-commerce, tyre manufacturing (tread patterns) and marketing (new segments, new product development, along with campaign, distribution channel and pricing optimisation).
The panel identified access and how equitably AI is being applied being important as AI’s application goes broader and deeper in economies and societies.
Is AI being applied equitably?
Panel felt it important for companies and the government to continue the effort in working to improve equity in the application of AI.
The panel discussed the equity and ethical considerations of AI, noting AI models are becoming more powerful and more efficient, but access to AI needs resources (processing power, storage, talent, training). It was felt that impact investing can play a significant role in helping equity by encouraging more capital to be mindful and measure the outcomes on society and the planet (e.g. climate change).
Conclusion and future impact of AI
Generative AI which is just one part of the AI slice but made popular by ChatGPT is a fast growing area.
(see worldwide market size of generative AI below).
Generative AI is being used both by tech start-ups and in big tech companies. Big tech companies using generative AI include: Apple (Siri and dictation), Google (photos) and Microsoft who are leveraging their investment in OpenAI (developer of ChatGPT) and integrating it into Bing (scratch engine) and MS Office suite of products.
One major use case application of this kind of natural language generative AI is for it to be available as a co-pilot to different job functions to increase productivity and focus on more value added, complex and higher cognitive tasks. However, there is a view by some experts that AI will impact creative and white collar jobs which were previously felt immune from the impact of AI (see graph).
In summary, panel felt AI is already changing various industries and will continue to do so at different speeds and in different ways. While AI has the potential to benefit everyone, access to AI needs resources and political will to ensure equity and ethical considerations. Impact investing can play a significant role in encouraging more capital to be mindful and measure the outcomes on society and the planet.
If you wanted to have a chat about AI generally or how it is going to impact your business or about developing an AI programme to utilise the power of AI, contact us.
References
| ↑1 | This summary is based on moderator and panel notes for the event edited by ChatGPT and quality reviewed, edited and supporting data added by Quality Company Partners Limited. Although effort was made to be in keeping with general content of the panel, no transcript of the event was available and parts may not be an exact representation of individual panel member views or discussions. However, we wanted give access to the valuable insights. The source of all graphs shown is Statista: Artificial Intelligence: Creators, Company Landscape, and Consequences. |
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