Name: Genpact CEO: Companies Have a Responsibility to Reduce A.I. Bias
Uploaded: 2019-08-15
Duration: 5 min 43 s
Description: Companies need real governance around A.I. or else the government will step in to regulate, says Genpact CEO Tyger Tyagarajan.

[ MUSIC ] Tiger, you spend a lot of time advising CEOs on technology trends, workplace issues and just about how to succeed in business. Artificial intelligence is so top of mind these days for business leaders exciting possibilities but also. Some ethical concerns. So what's your take on this dilemma? And what do you tell CEOs? The most important thing to understand is that it's a wow as well as it could be a problem. But that's no different from most other technologies. And the problem that I think the world has is there's too much of negativity. associated with the topic of AI and machine learning. So our perspective and my perspective is the narrative around AI has to change and it has to be much more positive balanced with the negative. The negative we have to think about in order to mitigate. But there's so much positive that can come out of AI. Well, the critic say that there are biases in AI that could impact things like Who gets a job? Who gets a bank loan. So what needs to be done to address these flaws in the AI algorithm? I mean, is there a fix? There's a long term fix, but it should start now. And it shuld start with what's the data you are using to build your AI algorithms. If your data, is restricted, and has biases already in it. Then the answer that the machine is gonna give you, is gonna be biased. And one of the ways to address that is to actually, expand the pool from where you gather data. So bring the outliers into the data because if you don't, you may actually have inherent biases. Second is who is actually building these algorithms? Do you have a diverse set of people who have diverse thinking building these algorithms? We have people who actually question the status quo. If you don't have people who question the status quo than the status quo will continue, and that means bias will continue. How should CEOs and business leaders? Navigate these very complex issues so that they can get in on AI. I think in AI teams, you must have a specific set of people who chartered with the topic of how do I make sure that I'm not introducing biases that I shouldn't topic around where do I get the data from and so on. So the governance around this has to be real. At some point in time, I think companies should collaborate around biases. It's okay to collaborate on biases in order to mitigate them. Because if companies don't do that, then governments and regulators will step in So it's better for self regulation to happen on topics like bias, then for a third party or a government to step in, It's never good when that happens. How do you think companies have to better prepare their employees for all these changes going on in the workplace? So it starts with actually changing narrative that AI is actually going to create more jobs but the reality is those jobs require new skills. We did a overall 360 degrees survey just a few months back employees, leaders and consumers on the topic of AI and what it means and what are the changes, and universally two things that surprised us. One, almost every employee is saying, Yea h, we can work with the AI and it's gonna come in and we'll work with the AI and machine learning and machines etc. But, We need re- skilling. And then to the question are you getting re- skilled enough, the answer was no. You talk to leaders, leaders such as me, we're all saying, hey we're doing a lot of re- skilling programs, we're launching a lot of programs. So there is a disconnect between what employees want, And ward leaders and companies are doing. We just need to do more. Well from what you're seeing are companies big ones and small ones doing enough of the job retraining and reskilling. I think companies are have a clear intent and a desire to reskill their workforce. The problem that is facing everyone is how do you do that at scale. How do you do that with speed? So part of the answer, I think, is technology and using technology to actually allow bite sized, quick scaled up rescaling. So everyone is working on those programs. We have ourselves working on a program called genome to do that. And that's part of the answer. Is there someone we can look to for how to learn how to do all of this? Is there a role model? There are so many of them and across the world and in my role, I have the privilege of meeting so many of them just in our client base or in conferences such as the Fortune CEO Initiative Conference. So let's a pick few. Let's pick Satya Nadella, Microsoft, his view on how Companies can leverage technologies to actually solve real problems that industries and companies are dealing with. Or let's pick Larry Fink at BlackRock. Purpose driven and you know it's not just about shareholder value. And explaining that very clearly. Huge difference. And then let's think about a large enterprise like Walmart. How do you how do you have that kind of an enterprise move at the speed at which they do on various topics, and when we work with them, we realize they are moving at speed. So, so many people to learn from across the board. You have written recently that in times of change and uncertainty. It's essential to never lose sight of your North Star, and then you added that to stand strong on our beliefs and values. What's the North Star belief that guides the moral vision that your company [ UNKNOWN ]. [ UNKNOWN ] our vision is ultimately to add value to our clients and our client's clients and therefore to society. And at the core of that belief is a set of values that we call ci squared. And if I were to pick one of them, curiosity drives our organization, ultimately at its core, it's how do you constantly learn? How do you include more people in that learning? That's what guides us. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Genpact CEO: Companies Have a Responsibility to Reduce A.I. Bias

Tech

Companies need real governance around A.I. or else the government will step in to regulate, says Genpact CEO Tyger Tyagarajan.