KOCHI: The idea of ethics was the flavour at the World Congress of International Advertising Association at Bolgatty on the final day on Friday as global technology honchos and marketing wizards wrestled with the vexed problem of harnessing the possibilities of artificial intelligence, internet-of-things and others without jeopardising the human social fabric. As the day progressed, speakers dwelt on subjects as varied as determinants of choices, future of mobiles and wearable devices, designing ethical products in the IOT era and responsible AI for humanity.
In between, Robot Sophia, the social humanoid robot, answered questions on 'Robots and Humans- Friends or Foes' as nonchalantly as only robots programmed for such tasks could do.
Sheena Iyengar, professor of Columbia School of Business, set the tone for the day with her scintillating presentation on the art of making choices dwelling at length on how she stumbled on the subject.
She said 'more the merrier' principle will not apply in the art of making choices. Bombarding with more choices will have consequences such as consumer making less choices, being inconsistent with choice and remaining less satisfied. More choices make it cognitively complex for human beings to choose, Prof. Iyengar said and added choices should remain manageable as 80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of the options offered.
Rumman Chowdhury of Accenture Applied Intelligence speaking on 'Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Humanity' drew the attention on the dangers of societal bias getting invaded in the world of artificial intelligence. Data bias, reporting and response bias and design bias are the pitfalls that needed to be avoided to prevent the perpetuation of loss of opportunity, economic loss and loss of liberty. Elaborating on detrimental impacts of measurement bias and feedback loop in the era of AI, she spoke about the dangerous consequences of facial recognition tools being used to determine something such as who will evolve into a school shooter. .
Pranav Mistry, head, Think-Tank Team & Global vice-president-research, Samsung, in a crisp presentation on the future of information technology focusing on mobiles and wearable stressed the need for finding the right balancing of illusion and reality. On the possible negative impact of the technology, he said, "we, creators and promoters, have to be responsible and ethical in a way that technology and content doesn't become a problem for the users."
Alexandra Deschamps Sonsino, working in the area of Internet of Things (IOT), spoke about the need for high levels of ethics in designing products and services in the era of IOT.
Scott Bedbury, CEO, Brandstream Inc, Jean David, of Cirque du Soleil and several others spoke on various aspects of brands, innovation and artificial intelligence.
