Ethical AI and innovation are ‘two sides of the same coin’

CEOs of start-ups and big tech companies spoke at the TIME100 Summit on Wednesday about innovating with artificial intelligence ethically, moments before a heated debate about the future of technology.

“Regulation and innovation are two sides of the same coin,” said Rosanne Kincaid-Smith, Group Chief Operating Officer at Northern Data Group, which is an exclusive partner of the TIME100 Summit. She added that technology companies and industry leaders should work to improve regulation. “Not contributing actively through lobbying would be a big miss for us,” she said.

Kincaid-Smith emphasized the benefits of AI and suggested that questions about whether AI is “evil” and will have a negative impact on the workforce are misguided. “We forget to remember that Artificial Intelligence is artificial. It’s not natural…It’s an artifact of our own learning, of human culture, of human history…so it’s up to us to make sure it reflects the best of us,” she said.

Justina Nixon-Saintil, vice president and chief impact officer at IBM, shared that IBM is investing more resources in climate modeling. IBM is working with NASA to build a basic AI model to improve the speed, accuracy, and accessibility of weather forecasting.

Mathias Wikström, CEO of Doconomy, which provides banks with financial tools to drive global climate action, stressed that climate literacy is critical to achieving climate justice.

The TIME100 Summit brings together leaders from the global TIME100 community to highlight solutions and encourage action toward a better world. This year’s summit features a variety of speakers from diverse sectors, including politics, business, health and science, culture and more.

TIME100 Summit 2024 speakers include actor Elliot Page, designer Tory Burch, Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad, WNBA champion A’ja Wilson, author Margaret Atwood, NYSE President Lynn Martin, comedian Alex Edelman, the professor Yoshua Bengio, the 68th Secretary of State John Kerry, actress Jane Fonda and many more.

The TIME100 Summit was presented by Booking.com, Citi, Merck, Northern Data Group, Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whiskey and Verizon.