In this episode of IBM thinkLeaders podcast, we are joined by guest Kate O'Neill (author of Tech Humanist: How You Can Make Technology Better for Business and Better for Humans) to discuss how we can leverage AI for good, the need for a transdisciplinary approach to AI, and what it means to be an Optimistic Futurist. Kate talks about her own career path and the holistic, integrative approach to advocates using when employing AI to tackle major societal issues. 

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Kate O'Neill @ KateO 

“There is potential for it [AI] to go badly and there is potential for it to go off the rails. But there is also always so much power to use it for the good of humanity. And that's the way I prefer to be focused to steer us in that direction.”

“So even at this stage of A.I., we have demonstrable experience of being able to say, here's a human problem, here's a category of human problems, and here's how we could leverage emerging exponential technology to help humanity solve that problem.”

“If we only look at human problems and the solutions to human problems through one lens, like technology or A.I., then we'll only get a very narrow read on it. But if we bring an integrative, holistic lens that has sort of a generalist philosophy, we stand a chance of really recreating human experience writ large in a very meaningful way. And that's the future I would like to see.”

Leveraging AI to tackle large problems & being an Optimistic Futurist feat. Kate O'Neill

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