If the first part of their discussion explored the parallels between social systems and AI technology, this second half provides insight on how Christian’s work draws inspiration from an unlikely source: the natural world and the animal kingdom.
From there, he touches briefly upon the responsibility of modern tech professionals to be aware of the social implications of their work and operations, providing words of encouragement to listeners of the podcast within the industry.
Ants leave trail pheromones to food that they find and then return to the colony. This leaves a road for other ants to find, which leads to the collective outcome of being able to feed everyone in the community. Similarly, honey bees coordinate with other bees to maintain their hive and protect the queen.
These are examples of biological systems that are naturally capable of self-regulating— so where’s our capacity to solve that on a larger scale, in business and societies?
Here, Christian discussed the possibility of our efforts being limited because we approach problem solving with a two-dimensional mindset—when in reality, we should be looking at the scenario in three dimensions. For example, one may be able to see, hear, and touch a forest, but they won’t be able to see what happens underneath the soil.
There is a call for us to “move away from the two dimensional, polarizing world that sticks us in buckets and says, this thing is this or that, but there can't be a flexibility or the nuances of an entity in between that can actually move throughout dimensions.”
But is it possible to run multinational corporations and governments as efficiently as beehives without taking away an individual’s creative capacity, while ensuring that the system remains flexible enough to meet challenges brought about by outside forces?
Modern organizations find themselves adapting to a strange new status quo: one where management must deal with remote employees and asynchronous work. It’s a symptom of decentralization in a structure, where control and command has become less concentrated on hierarchy.
Therefore, the ability to make collective decisions while operating asynchronously is an indication that the business has a strong internal culture that naturally reinforces good decision-making despite the time differences and differences in flows of information.
Prior to this, most organizations preferred to take an authoritarian approach to systems management. This is where the leader is responsible for planning out the entire route from start to finish and people are expected to follow. It works in instances where the leader has a clear vision and knows what needs to be done to achieve it across multiple levels. However, not a lot of people enjoy working in an environment where they are only ever expected to be followers of someone else’s vision. There is little to no room to foster genuine creativity on a micro level/on the ground.
Organizations also try to implement the consensus approach, where everyone communes to find a solution that pleases everyone. While it’s a more democratic method, the process is slow and the end goal remains restrictive for the people on the ground.
Could a more relaxed approach to implementing a system be in order? Christian muses over a world where companies focused on establishing a strong organizational culture. This would encourage everyone who was hired, who understood and was aligned with the company’s vision and mission, to naturally work towards a solution in both a collective and individual sense.
This alternative gives more flexibility to individuals and small teams when a new challenge arises. While people still need to attend meetings and management will continue to make room for mistakes, this approach gives people the opportunity to proactively think of how they can use their talents towards their goals instead of wedging them into a box—or turning them into drones.
Diffusing a small element of the decision-making process could help your organization by injecting a diverse array of perspectives and skillsets. Upper management shouldn’t take the entire burden of thinking outside the box.
Christian briefly discussed the responsibility of leaders to build diverse teams, especially when they are in the tech industry or developing artificial intelligence. He drew from his personal experience working with an insurance domain to prove his point.
In this case, the domain was working on using AI to scan aerial images and assess the value of a home, seeing if it would fit within their risk profile. However, they found out that the AI system automatically excluded homes with a chain link fence. If this algorithm made it to the market, it would not have underwritten any homes with a chain link fence—which is a common fixture in poor neighborhoods.
This would have created a bias against people who needed insurance the most, and it would have been an unintended outcome of trying to solve a simple problem using AI without the added layer of human intervention. As much as possible, the teams behind AI development need to come from a wide array of backgrounds so that the creation of new technologies incorporate as many perspectives as possible.
Christian encourages professionals employed in data science, analytics, and technology to internalize the weight of their responsibility: their capacity to change the market and directly affect people through products and services.
“People in positions of decision power, who are practitioners and implementing, have a responsibility to optimize for the right thing, and really be humble and understanding. And that's just something that leaders have to do,” he explained.
He also revealed that what stood out for him the most from TARTLE was the ability to “have a bottomless approach to data collection and ownership.”
TARTLE is our step forward towards a reality where people have better control over their own data. Currently, our personal information is working for the benefit of the wealthiest people and the most powerful organizations in the world. The concept of getting paid for your Facebook account, Instagram posts, and Twitter feed may be a little far-fetched—but this is exactly what makes money for these platforms. The TARTLE marketplace is our work towards inverting this model and bringing back the power to where it truly belongs: the people.
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