In this episode, global strategist and AI transformation consultant Dr. Ian Alden Russell joins Ben and Eléonore to explore why rushing AI innovation is a trillion-dollar mistake. Analysing the deep cultural and political values of the US, China, and Europe, Ian cuts through the technical hype to reveal who is truly positioned to win the future.
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Transcript
00:00:22:01 - 00:00:47:20
Unknown
Hi, Ben
00:00:47:22 - 00:00:51:07
Unknown
Hyun.
00:00:51:09 - 00:00:57:12
Unknown
Ian, you spent time in the US, in Europe, China. If you had to bet on which one gets I right.
00:00:57:13 - 00:02:36:02
Unknown
Where is your money?
00:02:36:04 - 00:02:38:10
Unknown
Europe?
00:02:38:11 - 00:08:07:08
Unknown
I think that's an
00:08:07:10 - 00:08:28:05
Unknown
Yeah. And to your point. We didn't like Europe, didn't have the same level of issues than the US and Australia, for example, thanks to GDPR, because the level of targeting, if we take meta targeting towards children, they would do emotional targeting. So if a child was putting a selfie then deleting it, they would target that child with a beauty product.
00:08:28:07 - 00:08:57:09
Unknown
So there's lots of emotional targeting. They would target words like depression, feeling down, any, any, anything that the child would be writing would then be targeted. These are fully forbidden in, in, in Europe. And so to that level, I think that's where Europe has that legacy of being very governance heavy and a bit old. And, you know, like as we discussed with a previous a previous speaker who was an atheist.
00:08:57:11 - 00:09:20:01
Unknown
She was arguing that it was quite slow and, and the governance needs to speed up a bit further. But I, I believe that that yeah, there is this inheritance of the government being heavily involved. And so having quite a lot of legislation, the US, it's fully business led and governance equals legal risks, which equals lack of innovation.
00:09:20:04 - 00:09:50:02
Unknown
And in China it's very much that approach of we are the parents and we will dictate when and how you can use the tech. So it's quite interesting that from those three setups, we can really try to learn and see which one might be most advantageous for humanity while leaving space for business to also, you know, innovate and do business.
00:09:50:04 - 00:09:59:21
Unknown
Absolutely not.
00:09:59:23 - 00:14:13:03
Unknown
Absolutely.
00:14:13:05 - 00:22:09:20
Unknown
Yeah.
00:22:09:22 - 00:22:20:10
Unknown
So that was like a really nice geopolitical overview and trying to understand the pros and cons of all those three different powers. But I wonder if we take it back
00:22:20:12 - 00:22:22:08
Unknown
down to enterprise business
00:22:22:10 - 00:25:20:19
Unknown
What does this mean if you're a manager or a leader in an enterprise business?
00:25:20:21 - 00:25:22:00
Unknown
what, what that makes me
00:25:22:01 - 00:25:29:15
Unknown
think of is we need to also put AI where it belongs, which is that AI is a tool. And right now everything. And if you look at the
00:25:29:17 - 00:25:32:18
Unknown
is can we reproduce with AI
00:25:32:19 - 00:25:37:13
Unknown
brain and the way of thinking. And as long as this is the discourse, then
00:25:37:15 - 00:25:46:15
Unknown
may not see eye as a tool and as a place where knowledge is stored like it would have been on Wikipedia, or in a dictionary or in a book.
00:25:46:16 - 00:25:51:17
Unknown
But they might see it as another brain with the same level of critical
00:25:51:17 - 00:25:52:01
Unknown
00:25:52:03 - 00:25:55:13
Unknown
And I think the second you put AI back into the place of it's a
00:25:55:14 - 00:25:56:02
Unknown
with
00:25:56:04 - 00:26:04:17
Unknown
of it? And how do I sharpen my brain and my critical thinking of it? Then it remains a tool and then you don't give it the power. And
00:26:04:17 - 00:26:06:07
Unknown
where that's where it belongs.
00:26:06:09 - 00:28:14:16
Unknown
a means to an end, not the end itself.
00:28:14:18 - 00:28:18:02
Unknown
conversation. If I'm a leader in an enterprise
00:28:18:04 - 00:28:18:11
Unknown
How
00:28:18:11 - 00:30:11:08
Unknown
approach go to the office tomorrow and approach things differently? How can I apply what we've discussed concretely? Would you have an answer to that?
00:30:11:10 - 00:30:35:10
Unknown
Yeah, because it's AI is a technology. So technically you would think, well, it is best place because it's how you roll a technology. But then because of all the human layers that you build into it, like to your point here, and it's very like it's a collaboration. It's literally getting, you know, it's the.
00:30:35:12 - 00:30:37:11
Unknown
Yeah.
00:30:37:13 - 00:30:49:12
Unknown
Yeah. You need strategic and visionary just to understand how AI is like what AI means for that specific business. It's I think it could implement it. Well, it could actually
00:30:49:12 - 00:30:54:21
Unknown
really break like false businesses to break silos and to really have those integrated,
00:30:54:23 - 00:30:55:17
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you know, a center
00:30:55:17 - 00:35:29:13
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department. And it feels that that's very much like the ultimate silo breaker of bringing integrated
00:35:29:15 - 00:35:39:00
Unknown
So like the kind of human thought that wouldn't be accessible to the masses before now would be become mainstream and much more accessible. That's your hope for the
00:35:39:02 - 00:35:44:07
Unknown
technology.
00:35:44:09 - 00:35:52:00
Unknown
for listening to The Impossible Brief, a podcast by cassettes. We help leaders navigate the impossible brief that is the AI transformation.
00:35:52:01 - 00:35:56:03
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