Ramesh Srinivasan

The Economist estimates that about half of existing jobs will be automated within the next 20 years, and as we see artificial intelligence being deployed into all aspects of life what does this mean for businesses of all types? How is this connected to the expansion of the gig economy, and platforms such as Uber that have rarely been profitable yet are worth hundreds of billions of dollars, much like Amazon was in its earlier days? How are businesses to ensure they are ahead of the curve when it comes to these major disruptions to the technologies we all depend upon? Ramesh Srinivasan has been analyzing how automated systems, largely introduced and driven by big tech corporations, have been impacting a range of industries from financial services, to human resources, to banking, to electronic commerce. This talk will prepare business leaders for the changes specialized robotic, automated, and AI systems will introduce into our world.

The metaverse is known to be the next major shift that will affect our digital experiences as we know it. What is its history and what are the different experiments in metaverse creation underway by companies such as Facebook/meta, Microsoft and more. How will this be connected to the already massive uptick in global gaming markets and how will this new environment influence businesses who may have to ‘pay to play’ to continue to prosper in light of shifts where users, consumers, customers, and competitors will increasingly move toward metaverse environments? What are the effects that the metaverse will have upon the rest of us, our emotions, ways of communication, and cognition? Ramesh Srinivasan has been analyzing how this extending metaverse will implicate economic, political, and even social and personal life and is ready to deliver a talk on this critical topic.

Every major tech company today calls itself an AI company. Why and How did this come to be? And what are the ethical and diversity oriented concerns as we increasingly witness problems with algorithms that carry racial and gendered biases, and where do these problems come from? How can they be resolved so that AI works for everyone, and how can the huge problems of disinformation and its role in social and political polarization be overcome? Ramesh Srinivasan has done a great deal of research and advised business leaders, politicians and civil society groups on the impacts of AI systems of all kinds on our lives and can assist business leaders with being ahead of the curve so that their deployments of AI work to their benefit. More generally the larger question of “Technology and Ethics” is one that Professor Srinivasan can speak to, considering not just AI but systems of all kinds including IoT, 5G, biometric and other technologies.

Ramesh Srinivasan currently works with several members of the US congress, and has advised policymakers in the EU, India, Brazil, and Africa on issues of technology policy and regulation. He served as an Innovation Policy Member for President Biden’s 2020 campaign and before that for Senator Sanders. There are a number of pending issues at stake in each of these parts of the world related to how technology platforms are being or are likely to be regulated, and he is ready to help advise leaders in all sectors of societies so they are aware of these major steps that are underway.

Some including the World Economic Forum have described the moment we inhabit as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”. This world is one where automated systems and intelligent networked software together will completely transform our economic lives as we know it. Many feel these effects today with the expansion of the gig economy and its particular impacts on younger millennials and Gen Z. But overall what will be the jobs of the future and how increasingly will we need to recognize that working with technologies and AI systems rather than instead of them will have to be an increased capacity for workers of the future? What about economic proposals that recognize an increased scarcity of jobs such as Universal Basic Income or micropayments via blockchain systems for personal data? Ramesh Srinivasan will take us to the near future so we can all recognize the profound transformations occurring with work today and tomorrow and what we can all do together to forecast and plan for these changes.

The vast majority of technology and Internet users, including via platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook/Meta, and Google, are not in the United States or Europe but in the nations and continents of the developing world - for example in South Asia, Africa, South America and more. Having worked in over 30 nations (and visited 70), Ramesh Srinivasan has a keen eye on what the major trends and transformations are in these places that represent the majority of the world’s consumers and population and how these parts of the world are likely to change in the near future as they increasingly collide with tech of all kinds. Rather than merely recognizes these billions as mere ‘users’, Prof Srinivasan will explain the incredible forms of innovation that can come from doing ‘more with less’ in these parts of the world so we have greater awareness of how our lives worldwide are changing in light of these technologies, even if many originally come from China or the United States.

As we face an increasingly challenging set of climate changes around the world how can we recognize the role of technology in combating these, and creating new jobs and opportunities for all. From electronic waste to cryptocurrency mining, the digital world has significant effects on our environment, yet these can also be positive for industry as well as the wider world. Ramesh Srinivasan has been exploring policies as well as technologies of all kinds that can assist us with reducing the harmful effects of climate change.

Many see problems of surveillance, data privacy, and economic corruption as resolvable with the turn toward blockchain/Web 3 systems. Yet how are these technologies as well as other cryptocurrencies likely to affect global economics moving toward the future and why for example have so many had such volatility and unstable relationships with fiat currencies, including ones used globally such as the US dollars. Ramesh Srinivasan has written for newspapers such as the Financial Times on these topics and can deliver insights into the Web 3 landscape and its effects on business and economic life worldwide.

We are at an inflection point when it comes to Artificial Intelligence and associated hybrid environments such as the Metaverse, a point we have never reached before. With the emergence of platforms like ChatGPT as well as the greater reach of AI and metaverse systems that are influencing every vertical - from banking to insurance to the future of business it is a great time for industry professionals and leaders to recognize what the main risks, policy issues, and technical decisions and systems are that are going to influence nearly every aspect of work and business imaginable. Dr. Srinivasan is a former AI developer from MIT, a student of one of the founding fathers of AI (Marvin Minsky) and tapped into major policy, regulatory decisions around where AI is heading from Congressional decisions to the White House to foreign policymaker proposals. He has written numerous articles and books on these topics.  He will provide the audience with the skills so they can understand how these emerging AI systems are working, how they interact with risks we are seeing environmentally, economically, politically (and more), and where business leaders need to set their attention so they can be leaders in the space of AI and the metaverse.