Democratizing AI - Progress and Possibility in the Smart Tech Era
hello hello everyone hello this is Irene with SaugaTalks hello thank you for joining I know you're following us but guess what it's never too late to remind people please please please support us if you like what we're doing here follow us on LinkedIn on X on YouTube because Fascinating People in Tech here is chatting with me and sharing their experience and expertise and I'm so privileged today because Jack ludik with meet today Jack how are you Irene it's wonderful to be here um just coming back from a a big international trip it was a wonderful experience uh actually talking about democratizing AI to benefit everyone and unlocking societal and business value at scale and see a little bit what's happening in seul South Korea haven't been there talk about Robotics and intelligent agents on trustworthy AI guard rails and then in Dubai it was just unbel believable the forward Vision um it was it is just incredible how business as well as Government are aligned in terms of where we need to go so was inspiring let's start right there Jack let's start because you're in so many Ventures I mean you are such a productive productive leader I just found your book How uh democratization of AI benefiting everyone we're going to talk about all of it today your recent trip you mentioned right it's important in front of the clients in front of the partners governments you even mentioned right what's the vibe out there you kind of started talking about it give us some details you mean robotics railroads I mean what's in the future for the humankind it feels I so interesting because I do travel all around the globe and I'm doing a little bit more now after Co I used to to do these World trips and when I sold my first a company to General Electric during that time and a g I was doing a lot of world tours um and uh right now it is unbelievable to see in South Korea of of not only forward thinking they are but where they are really on the edge of Robotics and drones and and I was amazed to see this at scale um and then when you come to Dubai you see governments the United Arab Emirates all seven of them as well as Saudi you see all these kind of people people completely aligned they think about the future really futuristic they think about how can we shape that sustainable a better future um and it's inspiring it's inspiring To See Vision um longer term planning and when I go to um some of the countries in Africa I recently met up with the minister of science science technology in Zambia for instance we had a big conference there and it was really great to see the hunger but there's a big difference between kind of African countries some African countries that is aspiring and other countries that's executing they are really so there's kind of disparate um what we see here so it's it's eye opening um so what's needed here is to is really Visionary leadership and execution um and and to help to help these kind of countries that that need the help um and well that's what I'm doing as well so but I must say it feels so great I'm I'm here in Cape Town South Africa it's it's a really smart city um probably not as smart smart city as Singapore or some of or seul or some of those countries where things are more smooth and digital but it's terms of some of the infrastructure it is world class um but when you go to the Bai when you go to seul when you go to Tokyo um you go to some of the US cities as well it's it is amazing to see um where certain parts of the world is actually leading uh in terms of digitization a driven digitization digital transformation and really thinking about Ai and web 3 uh metaverse thinking about augmented reality virtual reality already try to build Solutions with this you can see there's also even the people play with chat GPT and then you can see there's frust ation as well because they want to do a little bit more um and and uh but they see the potential I think um with generative AI clearly there's a lot of excitement there's a lot of business value that will be in unlocked and we will see Industries being disrupted um for sure um especially if it goes more multimodal not only language but a video audio and you bring language and everything together I think we're going to see something special and then then I I do think a decentralized world is absolutely a great possibility because there's so much Innovation with blockchain and and and just to create that kind of Greater economy um and if you couple that with personalized Ai and that's I'm very passionate about that because I do think that is a way to democratize AI to benefit everyone and I talk about this in my book as well so um we need to get to a situation where the tech job is not just controlling everything monetizing all data and services um I think it's going to be important that we also balance that with and Empower people with their own personalized AI assistant that can monetize help them monetize their data and services and even while they sleep do things as well um so yeah I'm excited about I can see I can visualize the the positive outcomes here but we still need to navigate there we got to be careful um I think if I think about digital dictatorship um I'm worried about that I'm worried about um kind of surveillance capitalism surveillance capitalism is where you've got effectively powerful multinational companies controlling manipulating people in subtle ways uh to make money um and those type of things as well now there's not a problem to provide services and all of these kind of things I think Google Microsoft Amazon apple apple is coming up with some really interesting products next year Vision Pro and and other things as well and I think it's going to enhance it's going to it's going to help um but we still need to think about how can we optimize quality of life for as many people as possible we should we should not just say optimize GDP it should be optimize quality of life um and that's why also my book I talk about a massive transformative purpose for Humanity um and and there's specific goals that complement United Nations SGS as well um the United Nations vision is is great for 2030 and Beyond um but I do think there's some goals needed because we live in a smart technology era that actually complement those goals and potentially help us achieve that achieve it in a better way um in terms of AI I think we the trustworthy AI guard rails are super important um so regulation is super important anything that touches individuals um that's even even with the likes of chat GPT and those kind of things we um I think generative AI we we will definitely need to ensure that we are positioning it in a responsible way um that's that's empowering and helping as many people as possible unfortunately it's going to disrupt as well so we're going to see some tasks um being automated um so it's it's a it's an interesting journey ahead you know democratization of AI has kind of two sides I'm sure it has many sides all right but yes the two that I see immediately is first of all yes looks like I is everywhere and anywhere all right and number of apps coming you know available to all of us it's impossible it's overwhelming right to kind of understand what's happening out there right at the same time so looks like on the user side right we have great options again not everything's secure not everything is really ready to be right productional lied on the other side democratization of AI to me in previous years it was all about skills because looked like only Ivory Tower scientist you know phds no less could have access to the systems and develop them you know in sophisticated way so where do you see that democratization is going in a way that hey more and more uh specialist needed you know more software Engineers should become AI uh right AI specialist so where that democratization of skills going you think yes that that is a great question Arin I the way I'm looking at this do you know what's actually happening here the smarter we it's almost like they say software is eating hardw eating eating other things other Industries all sorts of stuff and it's AI eating software I think what where we going is as we create more intelligent software and and almost if you think about the human computer interface right now we still have uh mouses and keyboards and all sorts of stuff but as the technology enables us to just communicate naturally with uh with the computer with the entity with the intelligent agent um and this agent can also empath empathize with me as well so so it's kind kind of really understand my shortcomings or where I need some assistance and help I think that that is that is the future that we hope U that we should aim for but the point that I want to make here is that if you think about it's becoming easier to communicate your intent and what you want to do you can for instance say something please write a program to do this this and this and you don't necessarily need to have all the technical skills or AI knowledge because you've got an intelligent system an intelligent agent that tries to figure out what you need and want and then can execute in that and can do the complicated things so and in that way the more intelligent the system becomes the easier it will be for more people to actually use it so um so I do think you do have that kind of angle MIT has got this interesting thing where they talk about sustainers explainers and trainers you you can train this is all to do with jobs that's AI related so you trainers would be people that's actually training the systems building the models all of those kind of things um if you think about um explainers is saying talking about what does it do and all of those kind of things as well so you need to have some sort of knowledge of what this model is doing but it's more on the application side and then sustainers would be looking at say the ethical aspects of this what is the impact on Society all of those kind of things as well does it adhere to regulation and so forth so so we will see these interesting jobs and I think it's going to be human plus AI it's going to be people that's embracing the technology and and using that to solve problems um and in the future I've got this one graph that talks about the evolution of of intelligence where you can actually take say you go all the way from the current narrow type of AI to kind of AGI to a sympathetic Ai and a shared AI where that's all explainable that cooperate with humans that's also like humans we are on guard rails as well we adhere to laws government laws um there's morality there's all sorts of things um we know what's ethics and stuff so as humans when I when I go to se Hill or I go to the buy by the way if you go to the UAE because of maybe the penalties that's in Place most people or all people adhere to to to to what needs to be done so you don't see people that's going off rails so it's very interesting so I do think if we look at an ecosystem of intelligence where synthetic AI intelligent agents and humans cooperate um it whatever is relevant for us should be relevant for intelligent agents as well we got to ensure that they also stay on the ethical trustworthy AI path or just trustworthy path um so so I think it's going to be all important um yeah so so I hope I answered your question there so I I I do think actually as as we increase the intelligence we're also going to increase accessibility as well along that as well so we just need to make sure that we Empower people um my my my concern would be that we just go into this without thinking about how we going to reward positive contributions to society or how we going to um reward people in ways that's maybe not typical of the job market right now we we probably need to adjust the economic system to make sure that what is the kind of future if we want to optimize quality of life when we live in a world of abundance kind of a Star Trek economy if we hopefully can get there then then the M then the question is how do you make it as accessible as possible to everyone to give everybody a kind of opportunity now even in that kind of world you will always have people that's working hard harder that's probably more talented so you will never get an equal world even there um so as long as you get it more Equitable I think that's going to be quite important um so yeah so I do think we we if if we put the right environment structures governance structures economic structures everything in place um we would be able to get to a future that we want and that um that don't discriminate against people as well so it is possible so we'll have to see we we need Visionary leaders to execute how do you see that adoption is going now because one thing to me it's still a huge gap okay the possibilities of what's possible okay these fun videos these fabulous examples right and yet when I speak with industry leaders all right they're kind of you know reluctant in many ways so how do you see it's happening right now meaning that what's is it shifting is it even shifting towards I think it's shifting and what you know what surprised me when I was earlier this year even like Kenya Nairobi it was so interesting to see the talent there and the eagerness to learn and playing it's like a it's like this wonderful toolbox where they start playing around with the technology now the question is can you actually create scalable Solutions that's meaningful for for a country for the world so so so that is the challenge so I think it's very early days the adoption is disproportionate it's not obviously because of maturity of where people are I can see for instance in a country like the UAE for instance that given their focus on these kind of things they're everything is so smooth and Slick um that that in Singapore if you think about those kind of countries as well so things are moving quicker um and and there is guidance needed um so so if we want to help the countries that's slower uh we don't want countries to be left behind I I do think more about Humanity as a like like a body and cells in a body all the and it's so important that we look after and help um countries that's lagging as well um and and obviously sometimes the countries the people that's leading is is standing the way so people are typically the greatest enemy of of progress as well so so it needs to be um and sometimes Democratic processes is also keeping things down or bureaucracy so this is why in some countries where you've got more kind of say China for instance the reason why they can grow or at least also progress quicker is because they're looking at a longer term vision and they're trying to to align people as well not everything is perfect uh but but it's it's um in smaller countries it's easier if you think of some smaller countries in Europe um the Scandinavian countries or some of the other countries where it's less people um where where the where the thinking is probably more in tune with one another and that you can progress in that regard so so I do think yeah so it's very it's on a spectrum I think so so we just need to to try move it up and and improve and I think it's important for countries to also set an example um of what can be done because um if if you see really good examples that's working then other countries can follow and say we want to do the same even if you fly across the globe you can you can see how people how quickly technology and systems and infrastructure look similar so as Humanity we already doing a good job of just copying what other countries are doing and what works it doesn't matter if it's more socialistic or communistic versus Democratic or whatever it is there is still that happening so um and if you see this is creating more wealth this is working we just need those good examples across the globe City Smart City smart towns that's that's doing a great job and I think it will be interesting to see in a few hundred years from now if there's still countries as we see it today U maybe it's like the Internet it's like smart cities smart towns connected like the internets like nodes and there's frictionless or borderless kind of interaction um and and business and flow um I can see that kind of that kind of World um because the the dangers that we face as humanity is anyway Global uh we are hyperconnected Society it's like this civilization intellect and we we if we can influence this intellect to to really move in the right direction it's going to be good for us for all of us so I I know we've got some Wars about territory about religion about many things and it's so uh it's really sad to see some of this as well and I think if there's real wisdom if you're looking back we will see that we can overcome these kind of things and there are bigger problems that we need to look we need to be United as Humanity even if we don't like it's almost like globalization is going through all sorts of Cycles because of this but but I do think in the future there needs to be empathy and respect for cultures and we need to collaborate and even think with AI we're probably going to see um that it's going to be easy to communicate with other people in other languages because of what's happening with translations realtime translations and stuff even if we don't all speak English or other languages it's going to be more smooth smooth and easy so AI is going to help with better communication I do think um but we got to be smart I think we've we already seen some um dangerous experiments with humanity and we see mental health problems that's why we've got AI driven Solutions around mental health um and and I do think not only mental health but but I do think we need to look at the well-being of people um and uh that's going to be important so so for instance with social media there's good and bad and I think this information overload um identity crisis when people keeping up with the Joneses and all sorts of stuff um is and and also as Humanity it's easy for us to see what's going wrong in a different part of the world very quickly and people can get demoralized and when they see it in the past that was kind of hidden from them this is just their small world that they operate in now we're almost like plugged into this Global conscious Consciousness um and and uh so we have to take care of one another I see a lot of good uh there's currently the Rugby World Cup and Cricket World Cups um sou Africa is participating and it is good to see how um that can unite people as well at least in a country as well so um if we can just unite around a a massive transformative purpose that everybody feels inspired by and that's what I talk about my book as well so I do have this this whole thing about um sapients and and stuff but we can talk about that later I want to encourage everyone first of all so follow Jack on LinkedIn I'm big fan now okay he's driving multiple Ventures wealth of information he published a book Amazon available to everyone multiple other everywhere exactly democratizing artificial intelligence to benefit everyone shaping a better future in the smart technology era so find find Kindle edition paperback I really encourage everyone because I'm just opening it up right now learning a lot and basically um yes Jack with leader of your caliber okay who is not just you know speaking about it who is really driving the ventures out there okay can you tell us all right what's making up your days in a way that you're leading startups you're leading company to grow so what's your practical angle right now yeah so it's very interesting I'm actually in a stage where after Co and we've created two um AI driven personal Wellness uh platforms uh the one is called V teens it will become part of vi vi uh.com which is absolutely looking at well-being and there's some exciting stuff uh that we're looking at in terms of that that's a nice practical application and it's so interesting that that kind of application is resonating everywhere last year we won the world economic forum award youth mental health award for that for for for that particular app um so so that's part of it um I'm actually at a point here where I we we currently have a kind of a us a AI oligopoly which is which is good because the US is leading and and uh but but I do think it's important for the world that there's other parts of the world that's also strong in AI to complement and and also to help move us forward and so I'm looking at can we establish a global AI leader that's really and I'm interested in personalized Ai and intelligent agents on trustworthy guard rails um can we can we create that and and intelligent agents shouldn't just be like the generative AI chat GPT type of stuff because they are already building a world model and so forth but what we need is uh intelligent agents that really understands what's going going on in terms of similar similar to us in terms of creating a proper World model doing proper reasoning and planning So currently it's limited very limited and there are very specific things that I uh know that we need to pursue um specific AIS not just a generative AI stack but also Yan Lun talks about energy based self-supervised learning I think there's some exciting stuff and components there that will lead us to better types of intelligent agents that could that really help us and then there's another strand of AI new different type of AI based on active inference uh based on the free energy principle uh professor calll friston and there's a company called versus in Los Angeles that's also pursuing this I do think we can get to explainable AI in that way they also have this path going all the way up to Shared uh intelligence or sympathetic intelligence um and that's for me very promising for intelligent agents so so I'm looking at can we establishing a global a leader that's innovating at pushing a Innovation but it's really looking at creating state-ofthe-art moving the intelligent agents to become really more intelligent more sympathetic and operating and trustworthy AI guard rails so that kind of thing is very important and then I do have this kind of vision around sapience which is like a AI driven super platform that's user controlled um where everybody's got their own AI agent and they can communicate with others but this AI agent looks after their Data Vault where all their data is stored and can help and connect and connect with the world but it could be like uh what what I'm envisioning here is like a lifelong learner assistant lifewide learner assistant helping you to make better decisions also ensuring that you are not um too dependent on it because the this dependence locking is also a problem um and I also think so it could be like lifelong learner it can help with decisions it can help optimize quality of life help you make better decisions um all of those kind of things I think that is the kind of potential that I'm really excited about and if people make better decisions on sense making on education but also in terms of Wellness Health um it it will be tremendous so if you just can get an AI agent that's helping on that kind of level and it's truly really effective then then I think we we are moving forward as a humanity and it's almost driving that goal of optimizing quality of life for as many people as possible and you want to do it in sustainable ways and in harmony with nature so so so those kind of things are are important so I've got a and there's more that I can talk about specifically what this massive transformative purpose for Humanity is and how it complements United Nations I can talk about that but before I do I I just want to mention the other thing that I'm looking at so it's not just the AI Innovation and then this AI driven Wellness Companions and this personalized AI but also the other leg is around a driven sustainable technology Venture Capital funder funds so we're busy with putting a uh private equity and Venture Capital fund the funds together so we can actually support these kind of initiatives um that I'm talking about and other initiatives that's complimentary to this um so excited about that like this is like nice vehicle that can help support uh this as well so yeah so those those are the things that keep me busy right now so it's a interesting phase where uh there's new Ventures um and looking at U making an impact and a difference and causing hopefully positive ripples in in in in in Civilization just just a little contribution as well quick advice for those who just planning to start career in technology because we will need all the talent we can get don't we absolutely we we will need all the talent and you know what the talent is across the spectum that that excites me as well I remember um a few years ago I was always going to these AI conferences and it's all Technical and I remember there was one conference in Rio Janeiro where there was a lot of um different types of philosophy people ethics people and it was I can just see the change and it's even it's dramatically more so I see so many people that's in AI you don't necessarily need to be an expert on the technology you could be maybe be an expert on ethical trustworthy AI the applications regulation aspects um or in the industry how do you apply it so it touches everyone um I think and and uh so it's opening up the door so I think I think what one needs to do is you will need to look at how can we use the technology 21st century skills is looking at uh really quick adaption adoption um looking at how I can use tools in the most effective way possible so we need to get used to change and accept change so even at school level we need to say this are 21st century skills there critical thinking first principles thinking I think those kind of things are very important I also think transdisciplinary thinking is important it's almost like if you think about d viny and a lot of the other scientists or people from a few centuries ago it they they didn't think about just putting themselves in boxes even though I'm a I did my PhD in AI I I know business and being a smart technology entrepreneur and got gained a lot of experience with that there there is I'm still open to learn to think about philosophy because what is what is real what is reality if you think about epistemology ontology all of these kind of things I just realized it's super important um because if you think about ethics and regulation you need to go to philosophy to also assist and help and provide guard rails so so there's almost like a I I um I I value kind of the whole spectrum of of things and if I think about about sustainability um understanding bology understanding our environment and what we are doing to our environment those kind of things are important what we're doing to space uh all sorts of stuff so I think it's important for people to not um to think more broadly openly about things try to make sense I would love to see an AI assistant um that can assist you everyone with sense making So currently in the in the in the US we see a lot of polarization as well not only there other places as well and if you if you really want to understand the other point of view you want to almost steal manage so you've got a agent that helps you better understand other points of view so you can appreciate that better I think we we can arrive to more wisdom and empathy and better ways of dealing with things um so I would love to see uh kind of intelligence or AI supporting us in in that regard as well this is fantastic fantastic end of the conversation time is flying Jac thank you so very much for joining me today in conclusion can we leave our audience with few maybe takeaways because we went all the way you know from future Trends from challenges adaption realities right your Ventures I mean a few takeaways to remember this conversation by yeah absolutely um I've got this saying around Ai and web 3 where intelligence meets trust trust is obviously with decentralization and blockchain and those kind of things intelligence is what AI can provide so I do think those kind of things um so it's a fusion of these AI Technologies can we can create a better future if we are smart in how we apply this but we need to think about the big picture we need to think about cause and effect and there's people like Daniel smen Berger part of the consilience project that talks about the meta crisis and so and it's those are more system thinkers and I do think one needs to think about the implications of what we do in a broader context and when I wrote the book democratizing AI to benefit everyone I try to make sense of what's Happening across the glob not just in all the industries but what governments are doing what's the future of AI but then I ask the question is what does it mean to be human in a 21st century and what is the kind of future that we want the beneficial outcomes that we want and in chapter 10 I go into a lot of detail there chapter 11 I talk about trustworthy AI ethical Ai and last chapter chapter 12 I talk about um a kind of solutions brainstorming Solutions and I do think there are solutions and I'm busy with kind of solutions looking at person personized Ai and intelligent agents um that's that's really on trustworthy guard rails um and I think that's what we should really focus on so that's that's what I've got to say thank you thank you Jack so very much thank you my pleasure
2023-11-13 06:15
