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Artificial Intelligence Will Change How We Think About Leadership

“The job of the future may well be [that of] a philosopher who understands technology, what it means to our human identity, and what it means for the kind of society we would like to see,” he noted.

As we are becoming more aware, we are moving into a society where people are being told by algorithms what their taste is, and, without questioning it too much, most people comply easily. Given these circumstances, it does not seem to be a wild fantasy anymore that AI may be able to take a leadership position, which is why I wanted to write the book.

The book is not only about whether AI will replace leaders; I also point out that humans have certain unique qualities that technology will never have. It is difficult to put a soul into a machine.

We are not paying enough attention to training our leaders – our business leaders, our political leaders, and our societal leaders. We need good leadership education. Training starts with our children. [It is about] how we train them to appreciate creativity, the ability to work together with others, take perspectives from each other, and learn a certain kind of responsibility that makes our society. 

AIB: How can we move towards a future where algorithms may not lead but still be at the service of humanity?

De Cremer: First, all managers and leaders will have to understand what AI is. They must understand AI’s potential and its limits — where humans must jump in and take responsibility. Humanity is important. One of the concerns we have today is that machines are not reducing inequality but enhancing it. For example, we all know that AI, in order to learn, needs data. But is data widely available to everyone or only a select few? Well, if we look at the usual suspects — Amazon, Facebook, Apple and so forth — we see that they own most of the data. They applied a business model where the customer became the product itself. Our data are valuable to them. As a result, these companies can run more sophisticated experiments, which are needed to improve our AI – which means that technology is also in the hands of a few. Democracy of data does not exist today. Given the fact that one important future direction in AI research is to make AI more powerful in terms of processing and predicting, obviously a certain fear exists that if we do not manage AI well, and we don’t think about it in terms of [whether] it is good for society as a whole, we may run into risks. Our future must be one where everyone can be tech-savvy but not one that eliminates our concerns and reflections on human identity. That is the kind of education I would like to see.

See the full story here: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/artificial-intelligence-will-change-think-leadership/