A special conversation moderated by researcher, author of Technology is not neutral, and co-host of BBC's AI Decoded, author of Technology is not neutral Stephanie Hare with Angel Maldonado, CEO at Empathy Holdings and Founder at the Ethical Commerce Alliance, with a renowned and inspiring guest: Parmy Olson. She is currently a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology and former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Forbes.
Here’s a glimpse of this memorable and inspirational talk through the lens of Parmy Olson’s book Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the race that will change the world, nominated for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award.
Parmy Olson
What motivated her to write about AI? Olson discusses her motivation for writing about AI particularly following the launch of ChatGPT. She describes it as a groundbreaking product that sparked widespread fascination due to its advanced capabilities compared to previous technologies like Siri or Alexa. However, she was more interested in getting to know what was not as visible to the public, what was really happening behind the scenes.
For example, Olson reported her experience with Google DeepMind, revealing that the company had been trying to distance itself from Google due to concerns over governance and control of powerful AI technologies.
Why are the life experiences of Altman and Hassadis important to understand the situation?
In her book, Parmy has analysed the life backgrounds of Sam Altman (OpenAI) and Demis Hassabis (DeepMind).
...altruistic goals fading into financial objectives
- Sam Altman, known for his integrity and leadership qualities, emerged as a prominent figure in Silicon Valley after dropping out of Stanford to co-found a startup incubator. OpenAI, according to Altman, was created to benefit humanity through AI.
- Demis Hassabis, a chess prodigy with a singular focus on solving complex problems through AI, founded DeepMind with ambitions to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) capable of addressing global challenges like climate change and disease.
Unfortunately, financial realities often (and did) overshadow ethical and societal improvement in technology development. While both Altman and Hassabis started with noble intentions, neither the charismatic leader nor the focused visionary could escape the economic profitability of AI's potential.
Ethics of AI and real harms
Public perception has been shaped by sensational narratives around AI risks, such as existential threats and human-like robots. When focusing on these issues, we might be detracting from pressing issues like algorithmic bias, regulatory needs and actual harms affecting society today.
Olson argues for a more nuanced understanding of these risks to achieve effective regulation where long-term risks do not eclipse immediate AI impacts.
Shifting responsibilities to consumers
We evaluated a similar vision as that advocating for climate justice. However, after calculating the immense force these corporations withstand, it is clear how their advocacy needs to be engaged in the process towards AI regulation and ethical progress.
Is it in our hands to demand regulation? What power do consumers hold in the AI landscape?
Understanding the lives of those building technology and making decisions, their backgrounds and ambitions, and how they influence the development for responsible governance in AI.