The AI Pulse
Issue #4 — 14th October 2024
Editor: Professor Alan Brown
Welcome to the latest edition of The AI Pulse for Digital Leaders. A curated collection of essential articles, commentaries, and news stories from reputable sources that bring insight to digital leaders on the principles and practices of delivering AI-at-Scale.
Highlights in this edition include:
AI for Good
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced that Geoff Hinton and John Hopfield are jointly sharing the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 for their work on artificial neural networks starting back in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
At the same time, Co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs Sir Demis Hassabis, and Google DeepMind Director John Jumper were co-awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work developing AlphaFold, a groundbreaking AI system that predicts the 3D structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences.
AI can benefit the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but its development must be equitable and transparent. This recently published T20 policy brief provides recommendations on how the G20 can work towards bridging this gap, ensuring that AI’s transformative potential is accessible to all.
Bias and Ethics
Despite the growing interest in AI's medical applications, many claims of its superiority are unsupported. To promote more accurate and responsible reporting, here is a proposal in Nature for how to assess AI's performance in healthcare.
AI value alignment is essential to ensure that AI systems accord with core human values and operate in ways that reflect diverse societal values and ethical principles. This white paper from the World Economic Forum explores the importance of integrating ethical principles into AI development and deployment.
Are we now a surveillance economy? Data is being collected and analysed all around us. A review and podcast from Wired asks how we should feel about AI-powered home products such as Ring.
Cyber Security
This substantial new report from RAND reviews the challenges for expanding AI use in military applications. It concludes that understanding of military applications and implications is improving, but from a low base. Too much of the focus is on the tactical needs at the expense of the strategic opportunities.
A useful review in Forbes of Gary Marcus’s new book “Taming Silicon Valley”, in which the author shares what he sees as the greatest dangers of AI. The one he is most worried about? How automatically generated disinformation and deepfakes could influence elections.
Data & Decision Making
A review in Forbes by Capital One’s Chief Data Officer on how this financial services organization is preparing its data to be AI-ready.
Innovation & Collaboration
The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) has announced the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO), which it said would "reduce the burden of red tape" weighing down innovative companies such as those adopting AI. The Register thinks we’ve heard this message before.
There is a lot of interest today in creating AI agents — autonomous programs that perform tasks, make decisions, and interact with environments with little human input. This article from the Verge describes how companies are looking AI agents to deliver on AI’s promise. They are Here is a great overview of how to build an AI agent system from Leeway.
Perplexity doesn't get as much air time as other AI tools, but its innovative features have the potential to change how you work. Here is a great overview of its capabilities from Section.
Productivity & Efficiency
A special issue of IEEE Software explores GenAI's role in software engineering. Its 5 papers provide examples, research, and challenges as GenAI transforms the field.
And on a similar theme, a comprehensive overview from IBM of how AI is revolutionizing the software development process.
A key report from the Tony Blair Institute examines the future of robotics in the UK. They believe that many future advances will be delivered in the physical world, through robots that act as the arms and legs of AI.
A report from Thompson Reuters published in HBR looks at the importance of professional-grade generative AI in regulated sectors and professional services such as legal, tax and accounting, risk and fraud, and government agencies.
Regulation and Compliance
GenAI is reshaping the world, forcing a more anticipatory governance. This World Economic Forum white paper, developed in partnership with Accenture, outlines a 360-degree governance framework for resilient AI regulation, addressing regulatory gaps, stakeholder challenges, and the evolving demands of this rapidly advancing technology.
AI is accelerating the delivery on online government services. A new UK government report reviews the impact that online provision of services has on costs and savings, the impacts of digitizing services on customer experience, and the wider societal impacts of shifting services online.
Sustainability
Ben James considers AI’s increasing consumption of energy and concludes that this may be a good thing if it spurs investment to scale clean energy production.
User Experience
The NHS is in a critical condition, how can AI help? This BBC Radio 4 programme in the “The Artificial Human” series considers if its on the front line or the back office that it can make the biggest difference.
Workforce & Skills
With both the excitement and fear of AI eliminating jobs at scale, Lindsay Kohler at Forbes has written an interesting article reconsidering jobs and how you can future proof your career in the age of AI.
AI will significantly impact the workforce, leading to job displacement, augmentation, and a need for widespread upskilling. This major RAND report aims to guide policymakers and leaders in preparing workers for the AI-driven workplace. It offers insights into technical and organizational issues, challenges, and actionable steps to help organizations integrate AI and equip personnel with AI-related skills.
One of the biggest impacts of GenAI is in software development. Gartner predicts that by 2027, generative AI will create new roles in software engineering and operations. This will necessitate 80% of the engineering workforce to upskill their skills to adapt to these changes.
As Bloomberg reports, Daron Acemoglu, a renowned professor at MIT, believes that only a small percent of all jobs — less than 5% — is likely to be taken over, or at least heavily aided, by AI over the next decade.
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