
People to Watch 2023 – Reggie Townsend
The roaring success of ChatGPT has given millions of people an introduction to conversational AI technology. From an ethical consideration, what should consumers be aware of when they interact with conversational AI?
It’s definitely a net positive that more people are being introduced and becoming familiar with generative AI. However, there remains a need to recognize and appreciate the fact that the data used to train ChatGPT still comes from humans. The results of generative AI, at their core, are a reflection of us, humans. There’s still an inherent risk that these models can be informed by inaccurate data, misinformation or biases. It remains imperative that consumers continue to apply critical thinking whenever interacting with conversational AI and avoid automation bias — the belief that a technical system is more likely to be accurate and true than a human.
Do you think the data and corporate communities are spending enough time and energy on assessing the ethical implications of AI? If not, what will it take to spur us to take AI ethics seriously?
Ethical AI development is incentivized in more than one way — from a legal perspective, companies want to remain compliant and viable, so they are looking at activity around the world on developing AI regulations to stay ahead of upcoming guidance. But ethical AI is also good for profitability, as any overreaches into privacy or potential for discrimination can cause serious financial and reputational damage to a company. While you can never spend too much energy on responsible AI development, innovators in this space continue to be guided by emerging standards and awareness of consequences.
Please tell us about your role with the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee. What sorts of questions or concerns is the committee looking into?
My role along with the 26 other committee members, is to provide the government with input and insight into five primary areas of concern: Bias, AI Research and Development, International Development, Workforce Readiness, and Government AI Deployment.
I currently sit on two subcommittees: The first is for Workforce Readiness, where we’re focused on what is necessary for the citizenry to inherit a digital economy driven by AI, developing a set of recommendations to release this year. The second subcommittee focuses on Government AI Deployment, where we’ll be making recommendations for how the government can use AI to the benefit of citizens.
Outside of the professional sphere, what can you share about yourself that your colleagues might be surprised to learn – any unique hobbies or stories?
I’ve been involved in improv comedy for almost eight years now. I got into improv in the first place to force myself to be a more immediate and responsive communicator. It turned out I wasn’t half bad, so I was invited to participate with a team, and we’ve been doing local shows in Chicago for years. It’s a chance to not be so serious, and also helped me discover and develop techniques that also apply to my professional life, like learning to affirm others while stating what you believe to be true, and allowing me to bring some of my humor and personality into my public speaking.
March 23, 2023
- IDC Report: Responsible AI Integral to Unlocking Benefits for B2B Enterprises
- Zenoss Launches Identity Management Capabilities
- Snowplow Appoints Industry Veterans to Expand Technical Leadership Team
- Alteryx Announces Partnership with DOD to Address Data and Analytics Skill Gap in Private Sector
- Striveworks Partners with Carahsoft to Provide AI and ML to Government Agencies
- Gartner Survey Reveals Less Than Half of Data and Analytics Teams Effectively Provide Value to the Organization
March 22, 2023
- Nutanix Study Shows Data Management Becoming More Complex as Cloud Deployments Diversify
- Dataiku Joins NVIDIA DGX-Ready Software Program to Simplify Enterprise AI
- UC San Diego Data Science Student Provides Guidance for High School DataJam Team
- TYAN’s AI Inference-Optimized Platforms Add Support for NVIDIA L4 Tensor Core GPU
- Weights & Biases Announces Integrations with NVIDIA AI
- Vultr Announces Availability of NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPU and Partnerships with Domino Data Lab and Anaconda
- AnswerRocket Introduces Max, an AI Assistant for Data Analysis
- Panintelligence and Yellowbrick Data Partner to Improve Embedded Analytics for SaaS Applications
March 21, 2023
- Domopalooza 2023 Unveils Full Lineup of Industry Experts and Customer Speakers
- Ascend.io Announces Industry-first Data Mesh Innovation
- Aerospike Expands Community Leadership and Enterprise Support for Spring Framework
- Aible Unveils Enterprise-Grade Solution to Generative AI’s Hallucination Problem at the 2023 Gartner Data & Analytics Summit
- Akkio Launches Chat Explore Powered by GPT-4
- Cribl Releases Product Enhancements Across Portfolio to Simplify and Personalize All Observability Data
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