“Is there a God?”
The computer said, “There is now.”
Mohit Bajaj, Executive Director at Simplex, started his address with a retelling of the classic story – Answer – by Fredric Brown and once famously told by Stephen Hawking. It ends with a bolt of lightning fusing the plug. The 1954 science fiction short story tells us that we’ve always been grappling with “artificial intelligence”.
On October 12, 2023, we hosted an exclusive roundtable to discuss the future of AI innovation. The discussion was part of our SimpleXConnect series. SimpleXConnect is an initiative to bring the best minds in the industry together to understand the challenges, solutions, and innovations leading up to the next level of technology.
You can read more about the initiative here.
We launched SimpleXConnect with our first in-person event in London in 2019 with an intention to create a platform to meet, connect, and brainstorm with people who are instrumental in the future of technology innovation. However, the pandemic compelled us to take the series virtual for the last two years. We did have some insightful and invigorating discussions online, but there’s nothing like an interactive, in-person event with wine flowing to lubricate the discussions.
Apart from the entire leadership team of Simplex and our experts, we had a stellar line-up of panelists at the event, including Tim Beattie, Co-founder at Stellafai, Iain Boyle, Principal Retail Solution Architect at Red Hat, Omkar Pathak, Principal Enterprise Architect at BT, and Kathryn Lewis, Partner at PA Consulting – moderated by Bibhas Roy, Director of ThesaTech.
Some of the topics we discussed included:
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- The Promise of AI
- What are the most promising use cases for AI?
- Can AI be used as a force for good?
- Barriers to Adoption
- Who takes accountability of the decisions the AI models make?
- Who controls AI and is it controllable?
- How do we manage the Trust, Risk, Security Management (TRiSM) aspects?
- Controlled Adoption
- AI change will disproportionately impact those at the bottom and will increase global inequality. What is being done and what more can be done?
- Can AI be regulated? If so, by who? What role should governments and international organizations play?
- Environmental responsibility
- There is a potentially huge environmental impact of the AI models running on power hungry and thirsty infrastructure. What can industry do to balance this? What can govt agencies and regulators do? What can the public do?
- In what ways can AI be used to address climate change, global warming, and environmental issues?
- The Promise of AI
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One of the underlying themes of the evening was the enthusiasm for SimpleXConnect 2024 considering Simplex Services will complete its ten years next year. As we approach the milestone, we look forward to engaging more with our partners, associates, and customers aligning our service offerings with the industry trends and needs.
The venue for this edition was the historic Stamford Bridge – one of the oldest football grounds in the country and has been the home of Chelsea Football Club since its formation in 1905.
