AI: A Promise to Go Beyond the Peril

I was recently honored to be invited as a speaker at LSE to address one of the most pertinent as well as the most challenging topic in today's business world: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact to the workforce. The robots might not know it yet, but their impact on the human workforce is increasingly dominating the headlines. AI is one of those topics that has had the "Marmite effect". For every Elon Musk who believes that "AI could destroy the world", and for every Jack Ma who says that "AI and big data are a threat to human being", there is a Sundar Pinchai who says, "AI can help us in everything - challenges like climate change and cancer diagnosis" or Mark Zuckerberg who believes "there's nothing to fear from A.I…Instead, we should hope for the amazing amount of good it will do in the world". Clearly, leaders have split opinion and outlook on the future of AI: while some see benevolent Wall-E, others see the threatening Terminator.