By Sanjiv Goyal featuring Beena Ammanath

In this article you will learn about:

• Beena Ammanath
• The future of entrepreneurialism
• The implications of diversity in tech
• Humans for AI
• Why collaboration is the way forward
• COVID as a catalyst for tech advancements

Data from Day One

Beena Ammanath’s career has always revolved around making the world a better place. Working at the intersection of technology and business, she is interested in the value that tech offers the world. Her quest has always had broad-ranging implications, and the common denominator of her impressive resume and philanthropic efforts is data.

Humans for AI

Ammanath is the founder of Humans for AI, a nonprofit organization that seeks to build a more diverse workforce in tech by facilitating AI literacy in underrepresented demographics.

The genesis of Humans for AI was the frustration Ammanath felt when setting up her first data science team. A champion of diversity, she was disappointed that the pool of candidates was largely homogenous. Ammanath had always been an advocate of gender diversity in the tech space, but she realized it was about more than that.

“When I speak about diversity I don’t just mean gender diversity; it’s really about the diversity of thought. Because when you are talking about encoding intelligence you need intelligence from different aspects.” For Ammanath, gender, race, geography, cultural background, educational background are all types of diversification that enhance the ability to solve a problem and add value to a team.

Ammanath fundamentally believes, “Until we have diversity of thought in the teams that design and develop AI, I don’t think we can reach the full potential of AI.” And to her, if we don’t reach the full potential of AI, we can’t reach the full potential of humanity, a cause she is passionate about and actively pursues. Ammanath views AI not as artificial intelligence but augmented intelligence that will fast track the evolution of humanity.

The Ethics of Developing AI

Along with hope and enthusiasm, there is much fear and conflict surrounding AI development, especially around questions of ethics.

Ammanath thinks about technology in terms of three areas of growth that are evolving in parallel at different rates.

Areas of Concurrent Tech Development:

1. Development of the core technology

2. Application

3. Consequences

The core technology is being developed in labs, think tanks, and academia. It is simultaneously being applied in industry and performing functions while it is still green. The consequences of applying an unperfected technology are playing out in real life and in real-time begging questions of risk, ethics, and policy creation.

Ammanath refers to AI as an “arsenal in the human toolkit” that must be used for good. As with any technology it is about the intention and awareness with which we use it.

Take our smartphones. There was a time when people had to memorize phone numbers. They make our lives drastically easier and better, and yet we often misuse them and create problems for ourselves.

Even with the complications and missteps, the struggle is worth it. The time and energy that will be freed up for humanity when AI reaches maturation will allow us to focus on the creative side of things so we can reach our true potential. With each problem technology solves, we are able to focus on a new and more sophisticated set of problems, thus bolstering human evolution.

Ammanath is an AI optimist, but she is fully aware that developing any technology comes with the responsibility of mitigating risks and building it conscientiously.

COVID Silver Linings for Data and AI

The pandemic has exposed our need to collaborate and data share in order to solve world issues. There are a number of systems being built in order to prevent another pandemic, but the fundamental question remains: How do you share data safely?

Ammanath feels that just as there is a World Health Organization and a World Economic Forum, there will be an organization that oversees data regulations. Perhaps it will be called the World Data Organization.

Why is data sharing vital for AI? Without a complete quality data set, AI can’t function to deliver optimal results. We will inevitably have to find a way to share data safely and broadly in order to maximize AI’s full potential.

Having an organization to provide oversight for data sharing would drive important global projects like creating pandemic prevention systems. However, finding a way to share data while respecting privacy and navigating compliance is a tall order.

The challenge is creating this at a global level. COVID could be just the catalyst we need for an organization like this to form. Ethical data sharing and policy creation is a huge challenge and it will take a diverse group to solve it. It will take many brilliant minds, spread world-wide, across industries, working passionately towards this common goal.

The conditions created by COVID, ironically, are encouraging just that kind of holistic mindset, global outreach, and collaboration. It may be the catalyst for solving not only the issue of data sharing but other global issues as well related to healthcare, hunger, and education.

The Future of Entrepreneurialism

We are entering a new level of entrepreneurialism and industry. The first level solved for simple problems. One person came up with a big idea, created a start-up around it, and affected a large number of people if not all of humanity.

The origin of many great entrepreneurial ventures was a personal problem. Many of those problems, if not the majority, have been solved. Now we are moving into an era of solving global issues and more complex problems which will require collaboration.

The age of wunderkinds and one-man enterprises is coming to an end. In the future entrepreneurs will have to work with experts and put away their egos for the greater good. Ammanath sums it up nicely, “Most times technologists believe they can solve everything and rush towards a solution without bringing in the subject matter experts…When we ignore domain experts, we miss the nuances.”

Solving for poverty, inequality, climate change, and pandemic prediction will require a broad cross-section of people to be part of the conversation. Ammanath understands this and this is precisely why she created an organization that fosters diversity in tech.

“As technologists, we have to accept the notion that it will be a partnership because all of the easy product ideas around all these domains would have already been done in the next five to ten years.”

We are headed toward entrepreneurial sophistication. Entrepreneurial success in the future will require far more collaboration at every level in an atmosphere of dependence and humility rather than independence and self-made egotism.

Mindful Creation of Tech Leads to Ethical Tech

As I stated in a previous article featuring Rahmyn Kress, pivoting to purpose is the way forward in business and in personal endeavors. It is no different for tech advancements. Setting intentions collectively and ethically will be our saving grace.

Ammanath is kept up at night by the question: How do we infuse the notion of mindfulness when we build technology and AI?

“As technologists, we become hyper-focused on the problem and on the good things the technology will do, and we often aren’t mindful of all of the ways the tech can be misused, or all of the long term health impacts, or long term societal impacts of what we are building.”

Her message to everyone in tech: Be more mindful. She urges the architects of core technologies and AI to be intentional throughout the entire process.

The key is thinking not only of all the ways the technology will make things easier and better but of all of the ways things could go wrong, and to ideally build checks and balances into the architecture from the beginning. “If you’re smart enough to solve for a solution you need to be smart enough to think of how that solution could be misused.”

What would our world look like if every entrepreneur and creator thought through this extra step?