AI Is our Baby and we must take responsibility for it

„It is in your hands to make of our world a better one for all“ - Nelson Mandela

From geopolitics to national politics, whether you look at state-level/provincial or local politics; the same is true for multi-nationals, regional and local companies - we need more *responsible leadership*! At the risk of romanticising an imperfect past, I recall a time when inspired, hopeful, dutiful leadership seemed to be in greater abundance. A world where leaders took accountability for moving the needle forward in addressing the most challenging and oppressive realities of our collective history. My strong feelings on the topic may come from growing up in a South Africa that was inspired and led by great leaders like Nelson Mandela whose life IS a picture of sacrifice for the collective - imperfect, but clearly seeking to and realising meaningful, positive impact. Maybe it's the speed of change that we experienced as a country back then that makes me question why we don’t seem to think that we can realise even more today. Perhaps the optimism I have about what we can achieve comes from all the years of being reminded, „It is in your hands to make of our world a better one for all“ by Nelson Mandela himself. 

Yet, as the scale of risks becomes more global and the impact likely more catastrophic we see greater desire to pursue power, profit, political, and individual goals at the expense of rights we’d agreed were inviolable. We're willing to get our own at the cost of the other, a minority group or the collective. But, a world that doesn't work for the whole is not sustainable. This is also true of conversations around AI. Speaking about and handling AI as something happening on its own, devoid of human involvement and control shows a desire to abdicate responsibility. The opposite of responsible leadership. AI, just like any other tool at the hands of humanity needs leaders in tech, business and government to take responsibility for putting the governance, processes, controls and resources needed to deploy AI responsibly into place. It's in our hands to balance political, business, entity and individual goals with collective goals. It's in our hands to ask difficult questions and engage earnestly about what we deploy and whether all necessary design considerations, tests and validations; governance steps, incl. ethical and regulatory approvals, etc. were undertaken. It's our responsibility to only deploy safe and responsible AI. To move the needle, yes, but in a way that is protective of our collective future.

Much as we try to distance ourselves from AI with sound bites that present it as an unknown child that is advancing from the horizon, AI is our baby and will shape the legacy we hand over to the coming generations. 

This post was initially shared on LinkedIn in August 2023.