16.10.24 - Posted by Stephen Jenkins

AI Inequality is a Battle Barely Begun – Where Does Your Business Stand?

5 min read

Even by tech standards, it’s been a very busy couple of weeks in the world of AI.

Google released a major update to NotebookLM – its experimental, and very impressive, AI-powered note-taking/making tool – which enables it to now glean notes and insights from audio and video, including from YouTube links. It already looks like a game changing productivity tool and well worth a play around with if you haven’t already.

The UN released a report on the need for a global AI fund to ensure the benefits of the technology aren’t just enjoyed by a privileged few. It identifies 3 key gaps in AI development, namely representation – whereby the Global South is being left out of governance discussions – coordination, as regions develop AI in different directions – leaving us at risk of a problematic lack of interoperability (think Betamax vs. VHS) – and an implementation gap, which begs the question of the title above, where is  AI implementation leaving the average business?

Meanwhile Google released a separate report – outlining that the UK risks being left behind in the AI race. It calls for the government to create a National Research Cloud to support the National Data Library in democratising access to AI. It also outlines the need to expand AI infrastructure like data centres, and create a National Skills Service to boost AI and digital skills for UK employers and workers.

Finally, Microsoft, BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), and MGX announced they are  forming the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP) to unlock up to $100 billion in investments to propel AI infrastructure, albeit mainly in the U.S.

The current lay of the land

What does all the above suggest for businesses? To begin with, most businesses are beginning to enjoy the benefits of AI, which are often incredibly clear. Expediting menial, repetitive tasks, helping writers to create more quickly, access to information, and all in a (mostly) now coherent manner as the technology evolves.

However, what isn’t as transparent is where AI is having the most beneficial or detrimental impact. Where the runners and riders currently stand. And globalism and capitalism rarely manages to fully keep an eye on those being left…outside the tent. Tech revolution often creates clear winners and losers, and this is a technology that everyone should be benefitting from, if utilised in the right time and place.

What’s next?

We’re seeing our clients beginning to benefit from AI, using tools internally to speed up processes. Yet there’s a real opportunity to embrace AI in its current state, and for business leaders to essentially shorten the distance between the start-up phase and becoming a business which is truly scaling. But we’re still very much at a ‘humans in the loop’ stage, with the tech not yet even equally shared across businesses, never mind countries. We still have ethical, legal and privacy-related issues to address. Does your business have an AI policy yet for use of client information – or indeed a manifesto for the  AI-skills/programmes a business might benefit from? Even for smaller, less technology-based firms it’s becoming something needed as AI grows in power.

Adding ‘actual intelligence’ to artificial intelligence

For our part at Too Many Dreams, we’re signed up to The Sensible AI Manifesto. If you aren’t aware of it, it’s worth consideration. Put together by our very own Dave Birss it provides a practical and ethical framework for businesses to combine ‘actual intelligence’ with artificial intelligence. Its core tenet? That AI should be augmenting human (and business) capabilities, not merely cutting costs or pushing automation at a cost to an end product or service.

The manifesto lays out several useful pillars for businesses and individuals to conform to, including developing an ethics charter, AI training, clear AI usage guidelines, and fostering an AI-positive culture internally. These aren’t suggestions that should be considered a box ticking exercise. Given the speed at which AI is iterating, it’s vital that these facets of the businesses are reviewed on an ongoing basis. The industry is currently lacking a clear legal or ethical framework to adhere to, and in the meantime, the manifesto provides a working, practical model to adhere to.

What’s next for us all?

These recent three stories show a clear direction of travel, namely growth and sharing the spoils as that AI-driven growth takes place.

So AI may well benefit a moderator, similar to the UN fund mindset above, to ensure we see genuine evolution for us all, not just revolution for the few. If there’s an opportunity to improve economic growth via tech advances, then it’s surely a shared responsibility on all of us to ensure that any growth is equitably divided. Famously, since Covid, the rich have grown richer and the poor even poorer. Scalable business models, powered by tech, can only make this inequality worse.

If AI can streamline hospital waiting lists, can foresee and solve imminent legal issues, can find efficiencies for the already efficient, then it’s time to realise that its power is across the board for all of humanity, and not just in San Francisco, Silicon Valley or Silicon Roundabout. We need to ensure that AI is put to use for the many, and not just a technologically-privileged few. For most businesses, the immediate focus isn’t as macro as that, however. It’s sweating the smaller stuff – in which case signing up to The Sensible AI Manifesto could be the start of a necessary journey to stay ahead of the fast accelerating AI curve.

16.10.24 - Posted by Stephen Jenkins
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