AI is not the problem; humanity is!

  • Thank you, Niraj for the breathing exercise. What a gift! And thank you, Cindy and Don for inviting me, and thank you, Amit for re-connecting us
    • I am sad that I cannot be there with you in person, but excited to participate via Zoom
  • Let me start with a quick Intro
    • I have a PhD Computer Science;
    • And had a very successful career in Silicon Valley, in positions like CTO or VP of Engineering: NeXT, Datamind, Ariba
    • Since my exit I have become an impact entrepreneur and on elf the impact investing leaders. I have co-founded multiple organizations, like KL Felicitas Foundation, Impact Accelerators all over the world, Toniic, 100% Network, and TWIST; and am an active full time member of the Club of Rome
    • My current focus lies at the intersection of inner and outer transformation, of mindset shift for systems transformation – which is one and the same. I call it ‘deep impact’ – systemic in nature and with a level of consciousness that is non-anthropocentric
  • In the next 5 minutes I will talk about the following theme: 
    • There is no ethical AI without an ethical humanity! 
    • AI does not wake up one morning and decide to be racist, biased, and manipulative. It learns that from us! 
    • AI is not the problem; humanity is!
  • Let me start out by reminding ourselves, what AI actually does (at least with respect to LLM’s)
    • It does sophisticated pattern recognition and predictions, based on data that it inhales using machine learning algorithms
    • AI is doing what it is designed to do, just like our economic and financial systems are doing what they are designed to do. The problem is that these systems are built on deadly design mistakes. And unless we fix the design mistakes, we cannot expect a different outcome. Today I will not talk about the deadly design mistakes of the financial and economic system, but about AI.  
    • Machine learning uses huge data-sets – usually the whole Internet and now a trove of synthetic data
    • Next year, 90% of Internet data will be generated by AI … so we are doing recursive training on data that is either produced by algorithms or by mostly white men in the Global North
    • AI is basically a hyperactive mirror. It looks at our data and reflects it back at scale. It is a reflection of the consciousness of the people who created that data – who are mostly white men in the Global North
    • So when we say AI is biased, we are really saying, the people who create these data-sets are biased 
  • Here is the problem
    • We outsource our responsibility for the consequences of our design choices and blame AI as opposed to looking at ourselves. 
    • It is like blaming the calculator for bad accounting while the accountant is cooking the books. 
    • As long as the data reflects a racist, colonialist, and extractive worldview, driven by profit, power, and speed, AI will help us move forward in that direction – just exponentially faster than we could do on our own. 
  • And here is the solution: 
    • The ONLY way out of this is that we wake up to the fact, that we need to change our awareness and consciousness such that most of the data we create reflects a regenerative and just world. 
    • We cannot add ethics onto AI at the end like a software update. It has to start with us. 
    • An ethical AI needs ethical training data, ethical rules, and ethical incentives – none of which come from the machine itself. 
    • Story about my dinner on Sand Hill Road – who has the responsibility of creating these ethical data-sets? It should be a UN issue. 
  • SO: What am I doing about this?
    • I am investing in efforts like Rainfall – Amit is here with us and he will be able to explain what we try to do – after my remarks.
    • And I am helping to elevate humanity’s consciousness, as the future of humanity is a direct expression of it’s consciousness.
    • I do this by facilitating deep impact circles – where we explore who we really are, and how we want to show up with clear intentions, inner peace, and inner joy – within Toniic, TWIST, and YPO
    • I do this by helping bio-regions like the Alpine region (that I am from) and the Hawaiian islands (that my wife Lisa is from) transform from an extractive economy to a regenerative one
    • And I do this by working on myself, going deeper with my own mindfulness practice …
  • In Closing
    • Let me quote from the booklet ‘Burnout from humans’ co-authored by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira and AI: ‘The central question is not whether AI will destroy us, but whether humanity will find the courage to reimagine how we relate to one another and to the world we are part of. Should we fail, then AI will simply finish the job we began long ago.’ 
    • We are the problem. But we could also be the solution! 
    • If we want ethical AI, we don’t just need better algorithms – we need better humans. And that work starts long before the code is written. And it starts with ourselves. 
  • Thank you! I would like to hand it over to Amit
Posted in Impuls Statement.