508: MIT CISR Executive Director Peter Weill discusses
Among a variety of other topics.
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431: MIT Sloan’s Center for Information Systems Research Principal Research Scientist Jeanne Ross lays out the three characteristics companies must have to implement a successful digital transformation, which are experimenting repeatedly, co-creating with customers, and assembling cross-functional development teams. The experiment aspect involves recognizing that the digital economy is making new directions possible, but for companies to succeed, they need to find the intersection between what they can do and what their customers will pay for. Co-creating with customers, which solves the same problem, entails starting a workshop where everybody puts the issues on the table and are asked, “What can we do to creatively solve this?” Lastly, cross-functional teams are about recognizing that you do not want to simply throw all your money at your R&D or IT unit and ask them to get it done. Instead, Jeanne argues that it is an iterative process that requires many teams. We also discuss the evolution of the CIO role, why companies should not get so hung up on set roles of what a CIO or CDO should do but look to get away from structure, why having only 5% of revenue come from digital is actually an accomplishment, among other topics.
428: AI pioneer and UC Berkeley Professor Stuart Russell warns that AI is reshaping society in unintended ways. For example, social media content selection algorithms that choose what individuals watch and read do not even know that human beings exist. As AI becomes more capable, he suggests that we are going to see bigger failures of this kind unless we change the way we think about AI altogether. Stuart argues that to ensure AI is provably beneficial for human beings, we must design machines to be inherently uncertain about human preferences. This way, we can ensure they are humble, altruistic, and committed to pursuing our objectives even as they set their own goals. We also discuss why AI needs regulation similar to civil engineering and medicine, the impact AI is going to make over the next decade, autonomous vehicles, among other topics.
426: UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla details the strategic plan he has led. While he cites that he found a great university when he arrived, he knew it was destined for greater things and he set out to create a vision to realize that goal. We also discuss how the University of California System schools interact and share best practices, why Pradeep preferred an 8-word strategic plan over a longer form plan, why he misses being a professor, among other topics.
425: UCLA Professor Ramesh Srinivasan discusses why and how we should look past Silicon Valley for innovation. He argues that innovation is happening all around the world, and he shares his experiences in countries like Kenya and Mexico. Citing how these countries are doing more with less and being resourceful, rather than feeling as if economic or infrastructural constraints are restricting their ability to act, he claims that individuals in these countries are innovating with constraints. Further, he cautions against creating a world in which the inequalities that we currently see are amplified by technological innovations that are only defined within the Valley. Instead, he advocates for an internet that lifts all of us up because it creates a win-win scenario. We also discuss Ramesh’s goal to have a digital bill of rights, his Lab’s attempt to bring a variety of scholars and researchers into contact with one another and share their learnings with the wider public through workshops, engaging with journalists, and writing books, companies Ramesh has seen emerge in the countries he has worked in, among other topics.
421: Steven Rogelberg, the author of “The Suprise Science of Meetings,” exposes the main reasons why meetings are inefficient and shares his tips on how organizations can improve the effectiveness of meetings. Steven points out that there are roughly 55 million meetings per day, and most of them are ineffective or at least suboptimal. He notes that part of the reason is that 20 percent of leaders ever receive any training on how to run a meeting, the training they do receive is not meaningful, organizations have no type of accountability on how their meetings are going, and no one in the organization is owning meetings. To improve meetings, Steven suggests that organizations consider shortening the meeting times, structuring meeting agendas around questions to be answered, banning the mute button for remote meetings, and limiting attendance at meetings to those who must be there. We also discuss the importance of being intentional in meetings, how Steven got the inspiration to write a book on meetings, how a positive mindset from the leader is the best predictor of the mood of the entire team, among other topics.
386: Akamai CEO Tom Leighton details the private and public sector’s growing security concerns, which has led to the company’s pivot from its traditional internet offerings to a fast-growing security business. Today, there are billions of devices in homes and offices that are not adequately secured. Bad actors have the ability to wipe out any cloud data center, which can isolate many countries from the rest of the world. Tom believes that this damage is a fraction of what could be done in future attacks, and the only way to stop these attacks is to absorb it out at the edge. We also discuss Akamai’s founding story, how the company survived the difficult times following the dot.com crash, why Tom believes the firewall’s time has passed, among other topics.
This episode sponsored by .
Singularity University (SU), a global community with a mission to educate, inspire, and empower leaders to apply exponential technologies to help solve humanity’s grand challenges, has acquired the consulting and training firm Uncommon Partners (UP) to expand its capabilities for clients and partners.
Co-founded in 2018 by SU faculty member Kyle Nel and Amanda Manna, UP brings expertise in corporate innovation and specialized capabilities for strategy, research, and emerging technology development that enhance SU’s product offerings. UP also trains leaders to apply lessons from behavioral science to the human challenges of transformation, using tools like narrative, neuroscience, and experimental design. These behavioral transformation tools will be integrated into SU’s portfolio of enterprise solutions, equipping organizations with new advanced tools for driving business transformation.
375: MIT’s Max Tegmark, author of “Life 3.0″ and co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, asserts that the most important conversation in the world is the one about humanity’s future with artificial intelligence. Technology is a neutral force, and it is our responsibility to manage it wisely and steer it towards a beneficial future. As our technology becomes more powerful, so too do the positive and negative consequences. Max notes that we need to decide what type of future we want to have with AI so that its impact on society is beneficial, rather than harmful. We also discuss how governments, academia, and companies can help create a better future with AI, the comparisons between prior science advancements and today’s intelligence advancements, how Max became interested in AI, among other topics.
