Innovation leaders reveal the human impact of AI, from job loss to mental health.
During the evening, which featured appearances from a Marvel superhero, Toronto Raptors' DJ 4Korners and numerous Blue Jays cheers, Elevate Festival The premiere continued to focus on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on humans.
“What we decide to build together today will shape Canada's future for decades to come.”
Lisa Zarzeczny, Elevate
Elevate co-founder and CEO Lisa Zarzeczny noted on stage that this year's event comes at a time when Canada faces big questions about how to strengthen its digital sovereignty, boost domestic entrepreneurship and navigate an ongoing trade war with the United States.
“There is a shared understanding that we are at a critical moment and that what we choose to build together today will shape Canada's future for decades to come,” Zarzeczny said.
Almost all speakers touched on the economic consequences of the emergence of new companies and products created on the basis of artificial intelligence. Chris Urmson, the Canadian co-founder and CEO of US autonomous trucking company Aurora, has been concerned from the start about the potential of artificial intelligence to radically replace jobs done by humans. warned about.
Urmson argued that “jobs will change” rather than disappear, and that AI will create more jobs than make them obsolete, but said he expects the nature of many roles to change.
Urmson noted that the number of truck drivers needed far outweighs the number of people interested in the job. He also noted that the average driver is approaching retirement age. He pointed to a future in which in 25 years people will no longer drive heavy trucks, a job so dangerous he compared it to coal mining.
“If you look around any room you're in, everything in it was once moved on a truck. Our entire economy, our entire way of life depends on it,” he said. “[If] we can implement technologies that make it safer, more sustainable and more efficient. This is an incredible opportunity.”
CONNECTED: Alberta's artificial intelligence legacy runs deep. Here's how one founder is building on it
Canadian actor Simu Liu, who drew laughs with his story about being fired from Deloitte after just nine months, has also been thinking about cutting back on AI work. Liu, a Dragons' Den dragon and general partner at Markham Valley Ventures, believes artificial intelligence “will be as transformative as the Industrial Revolution.” But he did note personal concerns about the possibility of being replaced by (or paired with) AI actors.
In other cases, the conversation about displacement was less theoretical and more tangible. OpenAI Global Editor-in-Chief Chris Lehane asked TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos about whether tools like ChatGPT are truly democratizing access to information or simply competing with sources like TechCrunch. The conversation follows OpenAI's recent release of a fast-growing video creation app called Sora, which has hit the web. new copyright complaints which add to trials from Canadian publishers such as Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, CBC/Radio-Canada and The Canadian Press are already in the company's plans.
Lehane replied that this question bothers him every night. “Can we really democratize this? It will bring in huge amounts of money, and will ordinary people be able to participate in this if the pie really expands?”
Perhaps no speaker illustrated the current social dichotomy created by artificial intelligence better than Justin Scaini, who leads strategy, innovation and transformation at Kids Help Phone. Scaini explained how technology became both part of the problem and the solution Canada's Youth Mental Health Crisis. He painted a picture of how existing chatbots, trained to talk to adults, might miss young people's cries for help.
But Scaini also showed off its upcoming Kids Help Phone product, which combines human connections and artificial intelligence trained on its own data to help it provide a “new standard of care” that expands existing capabilities without creating additional harm.
CONNECTED: OpenAI insists on supporting Canadian publishers copyright the lawsuit will be considered in the USA
The need for human connection in technology was highlighted by Accenture Song Global CEO Ndidi Ote, who cited internal data showing that 70 percent of customers say they make decisions about which products and services they will use based on customer experiences. “So when you think about how you differentiate yourself… you have to make sure that the AI and the technology you use helps you create more human connections, not less,” Aute said.
In a conversation with Oteh, Cohere co-founder Nick Frost admitted that the performance of large language models is starting to deteriorate. While there is still room for improvement, especially when it comes to implementation, he noted that their limitations have also become clearer.
“The idea came up a few years ago that these models would just become gods,” Frost said. “I think it's pretty clear that they won't do that now.”
Noting the ongoing “tremendous rhetoric” surrounding AI, Frost urged entrepreneurs in the room to remember the greater purpose of what they create.
“I would encourage you to remember that AI is a tool for what you are trying to create,” he said. “What you're trying to do doesn't depend on AI.”
BetaKit is a media partner of Elevate. All images courtesy of Brandon Ferguson Media for Elevate Festival.
