The role of empathy in the use of AI

AI may be (arguably?) the most fascinating, exciting, breathtaking (any more hyperboles?) developments in the past several years. It learns faster than we humans do. It reads, writes, sees, hears; It parses, sorts, chunks, classifies, identifies and analyzes patterns, it offers prognosis. If that’s not sophisticated cognitive capability, here’s the kicker: It is still an infant.

BTW, I’m using “It with a capital ‘I’ here, to denote AI; to denote machine learning, and deep learning.

Phew! With that out of the way, we can get on with some serious business. Wait a minute, It has already done that. How am I so sure? Well, don’t take my word for it. Obama (yes, Barrack Obama) said it himself. Here: http://bit.ly/2erbSuM. Some excerpts:

“My general observation is that it (AI) has been seeping into our lives in all sorts of ways, and we just don’t notice…. We’ve been seeing specialized AI in every aspect of our lives, from medicine and transportation to how electricity is distributed, and it promises to create a vastly more productive and efficient economy. If properly harnessed, it can generate enormous prosperity and opportunity. But it also has some downsides that we’re gonna have to figure out…”

Right, Barrack Obama’s next job is at the MIT or at Google, controlling It? No, but imagine how scary, if his successor is actually sitting in their home-office (yes, that’s what the White House is, isn’t it?), and controlling It? I mean, imagine if, It forbid, the successor is the malicious, ignorant, greedy, power-hungry, megalomaniacal dim wit like the Ol’ Donald, getting excited at this whole deep learning thing? I mean how exciting, this deep learning thing? Deep learning. That’s right. Deep learning. I said, deep learning.

I’ll give you an example, to relate to a later hypothesis: “(Google) had mapped every single location in France in two hours, and the way they did it was that they fed street view images into a deep learning algorithm to recognize and read street numbers”. (http://bit.ly/2e7tLzz).

OK, now imagine, this guy above, (the Ol’Donald), in that home-office called the White House, if he’s going to get an algorithm (deep learning) written to parse through the whole world and identify the exact spots where scummy un-white perverts lived? And if he gets this algorithm connected to the nuclear codes? And what if he then commands the Pentagon to press the codes, to explode and destroy? 4 minutes, that’s what it will take from his command, to their destruction. No, Hiroshima was a play school. Believe me.

No, I’m not proclaiming doom here. I’m not dissing AI. I’m just reminded again and again, of that cliche of cliches, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. Now, we know all too well that Mr. Hyde is as much a part of Dr. Jekyll. They are not two, they’re one. Each has the potential to be the other.

That means, Batman has the evil of the Joker in him. And Joker is as much a do-gooder as Batman is. Wait, wait, wait, this is not a woozy schmooze. Harry and Voldemort are connected. It’s just how it is.

Which means, It, may be capable of some Jekyll and some Hyde? We know It can see, hear, read, write, self-learn. What it cannot is to feel anger. Nor can it feel compassion. At least not yet. It can execute at lightning speed, and deliver much greater precision than the human mind can perceive. Which is what makes It a benevolent and a malevolent. In Mother Teresa’s hands, It would remove all suffering. In Joker’s hands, It could destroy the world.

So how do we protect our planet from It, our own creation? Sure, It can self learn, and self-multiply. Can we teach It empathy? Can we teach It to ‘feel’ in some fantastical way? Remember It’s still an infant? And infants are pretty self-centered creatures, that only learn empathy as they grow and live among humans?

This is why Joi Ito’s* observation is worrying:

“(O)ne of my concerns is that it’s been a predominately male gang of kids, mostly white, who are building the core computer science around AI, and they’re more comfortable talking to computers than to human beings. A lot of them feel that if they could just make that science-fiction, generalized AI, we wouldn’t have to worry about all the messy stuff like politics and society. They think machines will just figure it all out for us.”

And it’s also why Nick Bostrom’s** illustration gets you worried too:

“Now this has profound implications, particularly when it comes to questions of power. For example, chimpanzees are strong — pound for pound, a chimpanzee is about twice as strong as a fit human male. And yet, the fate of Kanzi and his pals depends a lot more on what we humans do than on what the chimpanzees do themselves. Once there is superintelligence, the fate of humanity may depend on what the superintelligence does. Think about it: Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make.”

Now if we would step forward from the exhilaration, and the pessimism of this ‘super power’ It, and look at practical answers to leveraging it to human advantage, then it seems obvious that we apply to It a human filter; a human filter that’s at least more or less unique to humans. A filter that, some argue, sets us apart from our beloved animal kingdom. A filter that could have prevented Hiroshima, Assad, Qaddafi, Kim Jong II, Hitler, Genghis Khan, Mugabe^#… A filter called “empathy”.

“Empathy is the ability to ‘feel with’ another person, to identity with them and sense what they’re experiencing. It’s sometimes seen as the ability to ‘read’ other people’s emotions, or the ability to imagine what they’re feeling, by ‘putting yourself in their shoes.’”, Steve Taylor (http://bit.ly/2e8R8pS)

There is, literally, no other way It can be stopped on It’s course to Hiroshima. Powers that be will get It. Some of those powers may be a Bertrand Zobrist^, and AI can then become the single most potent weapon of mass destruction.

“Research shows that personal power actually interferes with our ability to empathize. Dacher Keltner, an author and social psychologist at University of California, Berkeley, has conducted empirical studies showing that people who have power suffer deficits in empathy, the ability to read emotions, and the ability to adapt behaviors to other people. In fact, power can actually change how the brain functions, according to research from Sukhvinder Obhi, a neuroscientist at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada.”^^

But there may be some hope, actually. Given machines can be programmed to learn, based on past events or experiences, Steve Taylor’s wisdom may come as a savior: “empathy is seen as a cognitive ability, along the same lines as the ability to imagine future scenarios or to solve problems based on previous experience.”

Take this research, for example:

A new AI programme has been developed to attempt to accurately detect signs of depression using Instagram photos.

The study, carried out by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Vermont, used machine learning tools to identify markers of depression. It was found that the programme was 70 per cent accurate in detecting signs of depression, which was better than previous studies looking at the success rate of GPs diagnosing patients – normally around 42 per cent accurate. (http://bit.ly/2b39jxJ)

We can go on, and on. Quite obviously, AI is ultimately a tool, to be used benevolently, or malevolently, depending on who’s wielding It at any given moment. It is the metaphorical monkey. It’s imperative, therefore, that It is injected with the ‘empathy virus’ before the proverbial monkey turns, well, Kanzi the Chimpanzee. To quote Nick Bostrom again, “Think about it: Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make.”

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*Joi Ito is Director of MIT’s Media Lab.

** Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, the reversal test, and consequentialism. In 2011, he founded the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology, and he is currently the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. (Wikipedia)

^# Timeline sequence of these dictators deliberately jumbled up, as it’s inconsequential to this argument.

^ Bertrand Zobrist: A transhumanist genius scientist who is obsessed with Dante’s Inferno. He is intent on solving the world’s overpopulation problem by releasing a virus. (Wikipedia). From the Hollywood movie Inferno.

^^ Becoming Powerful Makes You Less Empathetic, by Lou Solomon, Harvard Business Review (http://bit.ly/1bgRvKJ).

Roger Martin on the Lost Art of Strategy

“you need to create the future to be special”

Roger Martin, former dean at the Rotman School, discusses the decline of strategy, plus his strategic-thinking paradigms and their practical applications

Source: Roger Martin on the Lost Art of Strategy

 

Very interesting read around the crossroads of corporate strategy and design; why strategy has to be emergent (Mintzberg); and how strategy is the design of what can be. Read on 🙂

My experience with failure.

When I left my stable, convenient, well-paying job as one of the top 7 leaders globally, at a mid-sized MNC, everyone thought I was crazy. I knew I was crazy. But it had to be done. My daughter needed my time. My feeling, and yes, it was my feeling alone, was that she needed me to ‘hand-hold’ her, or just be around for her, while she transitioned from an alternative schooling system, to a formal, competitive school. The general idea of ‘quality time’ squeezed in-between long hours being an executive was not going to cut it. The reverse was the need of the hour.

Genius? Ole!

The most witty, hilarious, intelligent, pragmatic, honest view on nurturing your creativity. Guaranteed to crack you up and open your eyes.

Video in your learning strategy mix? What Masterchef can teach us.

It’s been there since time immemorial. At least some can say that.

Video has been somewhere or the other in the learning mix for most corporates. Has it been key? Mostly no.

Technology itself was part of the problem for the longest time imaginable. Poor quality video. When that improved, it put tremendous ask on internet bandwidth. Not to mention computers and graphic cards.

With that out of the way, at least for most corporates, video has become a real possibility. Together with her younger bro, gamification, and middle androgenous sibling, game-based learning, video is all set to be the next wave in corporate learning. Perhaps also in MOOCs.

That begets the question, is video the right choice for you? And if it is, how do you use it effectively?

The Joy of a Great Service Experience – Uber, Empathy, and all things Design Thinking

I find myself on this path to uncover how organizations are implementing design thinking to not just improve products, and processes, services and customer experiences, but to the internal workings of the organizations as a whole.

Funnily, I found myself getting into this discovery journey outside-in, rather than inside-out; i.e., instead of taking design thinking, and looking at how it can be applied to products, processes, systems, services, I started identifying companies who I had consistently good experiences with. And then trying to uncover what set them apart.

Sometimes, when you encounter a great product, or a great service, you know it. In your gut. You know they’re on to something great. Or that there’s something great going on there. And my curiosity wants to uncover what that is. And invariably, I find myself discovering that this company has used the principles of design thinking – consciously, or even sub consciously!

Uber is one such discovery. When I encountered their services on Delhi roads, consistently delivering, drivers almost consistently pleasant and reasonable (if you know Delhi, you know that’s much to ask for), I was pleasantly surprised. But what I found when I had less than an excellent experience is what gob smacked me.

Uber’s Fail Fast approach to Stay on top of the Customer Experience Curve

Arguably it’s one of the most disruptive new services to have entered the Indian market in the past several years. #Uber. While there’s ways to go from the span of their services in India, if what they did in their parent country is anything to go by, wow, hold your breath!

Ethan Eismann, Director of Product Experience, Uber

And guess what has led to this ground breaking service that Uber is… #DesignThinking!

You totally need to check out this talk by Uber’s Director of Product Experience, on how he used Design Thinking to make Uber the experience that it is today.

Uber’s Director of Product Experience on what makes Uber the market disruptor that it is

Pass Big Data through the filter of Empathy: A possible silver bullet to success?

There’s big learning for large corporations to take away from small businesses. Today, “consumers have come to expect a more personalized experience from the businesses they buy from*”. Whether they’re buying food, a product, a service, or consulting.

Think small businesses, mom and pop shops… personal, intimate. Riding on emotion, joy, empathy.

Now imagine all the power of data and analytics. “Increasingly more technology platforms are putting analytics at the forefront and making it easier for business users to access and make data more actionable*”.

“Both types of analytics (predictive and prescriptive) serve a purpose when it comes to fostering the loyalty of your customers.*”

Now think again… Think small businesses, mom and pop shops… personal, intimate. Riding on emotion, joy, empathy.

Empathy is what customers are increasingly seeking from businesses, whether it’s a small deli they frequent, or a large consulting engagement they’re in. Whether the customer is external or internal.

Imagine you take all the power of analytics from all data you choose to track, deduce intelligences around your customer, then wear the small business hat… small, personalized, intimate. Feeling your customers’ pain, feeling your customers’ joy, feeling what’s success for your customer. And responding in a way a local deli or baker would, when you explained to her you had gluten allergy, so could she bake something for you… Think empathy.

Suddenly something changes. You become your customer’s ally; their trusted advisor. Empathy uses intelligence from big data. Then turns it around into behavior. Empathy is the glue that makes your customer stick.

Empathy is also what leads us to real solutions to real problems. As the practice of design thinking has shown us.

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* Chris Poelma, Analyzing the Science Behind Customer Loyalty (http://entm.ag/27jwNTn)

How Sweden uses Design Thinking for Nation Building

That image is from Beyonce’s “Flawless”. And that quote is from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book “We Should All be Feminists”.

What’s the deal with this so-called book that Beyonce includes passages from it in her single?

OK, then sample this: Sweden gifted all their 16 year olds a copy of this book.

So, really, what’s the big deal?

Morgan Shoaff says on Upworthy: “In the book, Adichie explores the complexity of feminism, what it’s like being a woman in today’s world, and why we must think about the ways we treat each other in order to live in a fully productive society.

“You won’t find any preachy, “blah, blah, blah” moments in the book. It’s personal, easy to digest from all backgrounds, and a sensible call to action. And it’s short! With only 52 pages, it goes by fast, but its words are quick to strike a cord with many.” (http://u.pw/1Xo6A1z)

What’s happening here? Why would a country have all it’s sophomores read a specific book? Not in the curriculum, not a text book, just a random book?

Age 16 is more or less a formative year. Mentally. Emotionally. Teenagers are starting to form opinions around what they’ve observed from before birth. They’re going to start making their own notes, build perceptions of the world around them; perceptions of what’s right and wrong; perceptions of how class plays out in society; perceptions of how gender plays out in the world around them.

Clara Berglund, chair of the Swedish advocacy group Women’s Lobby, said “this is the book that I wish all of my male classmates would have read when I was 16.” Adichie’s book, she said, will be “a gift to ourselves and future generations.”

Do you hear strains of nation building there? A gift to future generations?

There’s a reason why Sweden is considered the best place for women to be. And it’s not so much about the laws and the enforcements. It’s about how they take nation building seriously. How they use design thinking principles to prepare their future generations to be better citizens; indeed better humans.

Design thinking to prepare future generations to be better citizens? So, for nation building?

The choice hype: red, vermillion, maroon, magenta, mauve, blue, cyan, cobalt…

I recently came across a beautifully articulated and data-supported article on choices by Alex Birkett. Taking from where Barry Schwartz left off (on the Psychology of Choice), this article is a seller-side exploration of whether offering more choice to your buyers leads to higher (or lower) sales; or does reducing the number of options offered to your buyers actually peak sales.

I strongly recommend you read this full article, it’s a quick read. And if you haven’t already watched Barry Shartz’ TED Talk, you must, now. It’s embedded in this article:

http://conversionxl.com/does-offering-more-choices-actually-tank-conversions

I found this article resonated with me, having just recently developed a product strategy for a food service. These were the very considerations I was playing with.

For a generation grown up in the promise of post-industrial American consumerism, we take choice for granted. This article explores both extremes of infinite choices, and literally no choice (or super-limited choice).