AI's Dilemma: Balancing Incredible Potential with Real Danger

For the past 35 years, Ben Rewis has been a leader in the development and deployment of cutting-edge enterprise technology within large financial-services companies. With a renewed passion for AI, Ben is now advising companies ranging from startups to global corporations on digital transformation and the massive opportunities around innovative uses of AI. A surfer buddy of Cloud Wars Live monthly guest Christopher Lochhead, Ben joins us today to share some compelling ideas on AI's vast potential for both good and evil.

Ben starts out by saying he got into working for a big insurance company, but he eventually relocated from Maine to California to join VISA – where he ran internet eCommerce services. Then, he moved to JPMorgan Chase and started looking at the fraud algorithms associated with real-time transaction processing.

He says as a student of tech, he already sees AI making a big difference in lots of industries – including healthcare, automotive, financial services, retail, telecommunications, manufacturing, etc. He says there are going to be 41 billion devices and 79 zettabytes by 2025 – and they are all benefiting from AI.

Ben says he does consulting work for the ag-tech industry. He says an apple tree has 2,000 blossoms and farmers want to cut it from 150 – so you don’t get the little golf-ball sized apples, you get the big, juicy ones. That’s 1,000X transformation – or 10,000X transformation.

Ben says things like miniature drones can be weaponized – and just like nukes they could get into the wrong hands. He says this is the most pressing ethical issue we face around safety, and particularly what war represents for our planet. Ben says there’s a ton of benefit for humankind, but also a ton of risk.

I tell Ben that an IBM executive, John Kelly, visited the Vatican – and the Pope – and he spent most of the time discussing the notion of bias. Ben says that there’s a challenge with ML systems. They’re not like traditional products and can’t be conjoined with another dataset. For example, a computer vision camera producing class one, and another set of cameras producing class two won’t be the same algorithm.

Ben says he loves working with teams that are doing digital transformation – whether it’s a Fortune 100 or a startup. He says he helps teams think through their products and business strategies, and if it’s a big company looking for transformation he is happy to do that too.

He says he found technology and wilderness at the age of 17. He says he found nature to be a really great teacher. Ben says pay attention to what it means for your kids’ kids, and try to the leave the world a better place.

His website is benrewis.com.

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