The Forum Interviews: The Future and Ethical Use of AI

The theme posed several questions: How can we use AI for the benefit of all? How is the divergent regulatory landscape balancing innovation and societal risks? And how will AI interface with other transformative technologies, including 5/6G, quantum computing and biotechnology?

SingleStore CEO Raj Verma sat down with Reuters ahead of WEF kicking off to cover these topics at length — and how both he and SingleStore have a steadfast mission to democratize access to data and AI, while elevating human capabilities with AI for good.

The triad of AI success

From banks to eCommerce, companies are after greater customer personalization and analytics using generative AI.

“For that, you require the right information and context,” explains Verma — referencing two of the three pillars of the Trinity of Intelligence (TOI) framework. Outlined in Verma’s forthcoming book, “Time Is Now: A Journey Into Demystifying AI,” the TOI framework offers a lens at which we can better examine and comprehend AI. As Verma goes on to explain, information and context come together to give organizations the roadmap to decision making.

“Data essentially converts itself into information; combining information with context gives you the knowledge — and that knowledge allows you to make choices.”

Yet as generative AI and AI applications proliferate, so do the challenges presented. As Reuters journalist Andrew Wilson points out, a few years ago AI wasn’t a topic of conversation — but today (and over the course of a week in Davos), it is all anyone can talk about. So the question remains: what are the challenges and risks presented in an AI-driven world?

“If you have the wrong data, you’re going to have the wrong sort of output and you’ll make bad decisions,” explains Verma. “Not all bad things that will happen because of AI are intended. It’s not the bad actors doing it — sometimes organizations or governments don’t have their house in order from a data, information and context perspective. Unless you clean that up, AI could do as much damage as good.”

Democratizing AI to elevate human capabilities 

Even with the potential for bad actors, Verma feels democratizing access to data and AI is key for the good to emerge — it’s simply a matter of balancing powers, ensuring users are armed with the right data, at the right time.

“We are ultimately providers of information and context. We cannot force a leader’s hand to make the choices around the inferences that generative AI draws for them. What SingleStore allows organizations to do is to be able to jump on to the AI bandwagon effectively and with their eyes wide open.”

“We do that by allowing them to declutter their data estates,  because the only time generative AI actually works is when it works at scale — it has to have scale, it has to have speed and it has to have simplicity.”

So, what does the future of AI hold for the next five or 10 years for SingleStore, and the world?

“I think generative AI will be the most sustainable technological evolution that the world has seen, I would say ever,” shares Verma. “It is one of those technology evolutions that has the ability to change the course of civilization — what it would do for transportation, space travel, health…we don’t even know. But the one thing I do know is that it will be transformative, and it will be for the good.”

“It will be powered by data and it will be powered by context, and those are the two things SingleStore helps organizations do well.”

See more from Raj Verma at WEF

• Bloomberg, The Pulse With Francine Lacqua: Impact of AI on Economies and Jobs
• WEF Agenda: AI can turbocharge profits. But it shouldn’t be at the expense of ethics

Filmed and produced by Acumen Media as part of 'The Forum Interviews' series. For more information please visit: AcumenStories