Kartik Hosanagar

Generative AI — such as ChatGPT — might change everything we know about knowledge, research, and content creation. Or reshape the workforce and the skills employees need to thrive. Or even upend entire industries and societies. As AI starts to automate cognitive tasks like writing and artwork, it is worth asking “What is creativity?” and “What is its association with intelligence?” This talk will provide a concise introduction to generative AI and explore the broader implications of Generative AI on business and society.   

Through the technology embedded in almost every major tech platform and device, algorithms and the artificial intelligence that underlies them make a staggering number of everyday decisions for us, from what products we buy, to where we decide to eat, to how we consume our news, to whom we date, and how we find a job. We’ve even delegated life-and-death decisions to algorithms–decisions once made by doctors, pilots, and judges. In this talk, Kartik surveys the brave new world of algorithmic decision-making and reveals the potentially dangerous biases they can give rise to as they increasingly run our lives. He makes the case that we need to arm ourselves with a better, deeper, more nuanced understanding of the phenomenon of algorithmic thinking. And he gives us a route in, pointing out that algorithms often think a lot like their creators–that is, like you and me. Kartik draws on his experiences designing algorithms professionally–as well as on history, computer science, and psychology–to explore how algorithms work and why they occasionally go rogue, what drives our trust in them, and the many ramifications of algorithmic decision-making. He examines episodes like Microsoft’s chatbot Tay, which was created to converse on social media like a teenage girl, but instead turned sexist and racist; the fatal accidents of self-driving cars; and even our own common, and often frustrating, experiences on services like Netflix and Amazon. The talk is an entertaining and provocative look at one of the most important developments of our time and a practical user’s guide to artificial intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents the next big paradigm shift for businesses after the Internet and cloud computing. Driven by a fear of losing out, companies in many industries have announced AI-focused initiatives. However, Kartik believes most of these efforts will fail. They will fail not because AI is all hype, but because companies are approaching AI-driven innovation incorrectly. In this talk, Kartik draws on his experiences designing AI applications for business and shares why AI is a radical paradigm change that most companies will struggle with and how businesses can successfully transform themselves around this new phenomenon. He examines how companies like Google have reinvented themselves around AI and how the same principles used by Google apply to your enterprise as well.