The AI Conversation We Must Have
Before it is thrust upon us by workplace tsunamis
As an IBM futurist and influencer, I was honored to be part of the World of Watson event (#ibmwow) two months ago in Vegas. Since then, one presentation has been rambling around my soul and my brain.
Shannon Vallor, is Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Santa Clara University, and author of Technology and the Virtues. She gave a brilliant talk on AI, Ethics and the Future of Human Flourishing.
She pinpointed why AI raises ethical questions we must answer, and conversations we must have. AI can trigger both our best hopes and deepest fears, with equal intensity.
Hopes: A new age of reason, empowerment, and the freeing of limitless possibilites for all of humanity. Fears: A jobless future, being taken over by our robot overloads, and a WALL-E-type dystopia.
At the core of her presentation was this:
• Ethical discussions and dilemmas are about The Good Life (not just avoiding Bad Life situations)
• In our future, there is no Good Life without technology
• AI can counter harmful biases in our thinking, and greatly enhance our thinking and decision-making
• But not every AI design and application promotes human flourishing
That last bullet has been what’s been rambling around inside me.
I am very concerned that far too many of our senior leaders are blinded by too many good-for-the-company, good-for-efficiency, good-for-productivity, good-for-market-growth biases, without discussing the unintended negative outcomes. If we do not change the conversations about AI in our C-suites, we may be driving toward…
Unintentional Two-Class Workplaces
and Dystopian Futures for Many
Before continuing, let me absolutely clear: There is no Evil Leader conspiracy here. No leader (…OK, almost no leader…) is out to screw the workforce.
However, because we are not having the AI/Cognitive Era conversations that we must have, we may be unintentially driving ourselves toward…
• A Two-Class Workplace: Top Class: Those who are digitally-savvy enough to rapidly/in-real-time gather, scan, interpret, synthesize, organize, and prioritize what AI feeds them, and then clearly communicate new insights to drive action. Second Class: Those who can’t. (Much of the workforce.)
• A Dystopian Future For Many: Those in the second class will find themselves controlled by circumstances and disruptions a lot more than those who can continuously master data-to-actions strategies.
If we pay attention, we can already see how this dynamic plays out. Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, and more, were events driven by intensely negative worker/citizen reactions to the globalization/automation waves of change hitting them, in a pre-AI era. With AI, the fears that Dr. Vallor describes will be ramped up many-fold.
We Must Stop This Now,
With Deeper Conversations
The root of this problem is not technology. It’s leadership thinking—our Industrial Age holdover mental models. Too many leader biases are still mostly corporate-centered, without enough individual worker/user-centeredness.
AI finally gives leaders the ability to achieve a balance between what the company needs and what each individual needs. We now have cost-efficient ways to tailor knowledge and service work, learning, and communication to match each individual’s needs. Yet, so far, leaders are far more focused on what’s good for the company, than each individual’s learning, working, and information-processing styles. For example…
Among the first shots in the AI war against the workorce was JPMorgan’s 2015 decision to use an algorithm to hunt for rogue employees, who might… might… possibly… be prone to committing fraud or ethics violations. This is Vallor’s dystopia fully realized. JPMorgan could have also invested in AI to better personalize training and development for its workforce. Instead it only focused on a Minority Report-type pre-crime app.
Corporate-centered thinking is so pervasive among C-suiters that will leverage AI, that good, well-intentioned leaders are creating dystopian, overburdened futures without even realizing it.
For example: When IBM Cognitive Enterprise recently surveyed executives about the first priorities for AI, they responded: 1. and 2. Serve Customers, Cut Costs. 3. Disrupt Industry. But when Reid Hoffman/LinkedIn asked top performers for AI first uses, they responded: 1. Meetings, Emails, Phone Calls 2. Serve Customers 3. Career Coaching. Notice the difference? Overload is one of the biggest issues facing our workforce and one of the biggest productivity drains today; and coaching is needed by everyone—yet corporate-centered and market-centered priorities will almost always win out. (Paragraph adapted from post on 2017 trends.)
Take a moment to consider the possible future of AI, from the workforce’s perspective…
You are Jane Q. Employee in the early 2020s: Your AI-captured personal health stats and the RFID chip in your chair will be tied into how much you pay for healthcare. Using AI, your team meeting conversations will be tracked and compared to your output. Your recorded conversations and all online work will be tracked against what the company wants you to be focusing on. Your voice-activated WorkplaceAlexa will be used not just to aid your work, but to influence and direct your decisions and actions. Senior execs will have figured out that their best change management and behavioral change tools will be through WorkplaceAlexa responses and recommendations. Unless there’s a sudden and enlightened shift toward Servant Leadership, your 2020s could begin to look like portions of 1984. (Paragraph adapted from post on 2017 CES.)
What to Do?
It’s Simple…
Corporate leaders, their AI experts and vendors, and their management consultants must also look at the future of AI from the workforce’s perspective, and then and only then create AI strategies. Leaders must dig deeper into their own values and create a better balance between corporate-centered AI and workforce-centered AI.
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— by Bill Jensen
Who believes in Star Trek’s ideals — where the combination of technology and the better angels within each of us, will guide all of society to an amazing future.
#NewWaytoWork #FutureOfWork
Jensen Site, Twitter, FB, LinkedIn
Bill’s latest book, Future Strong, is about the five deeply personal choices each of us must make to be ready for all the disruptive tomorrows heading our way.
