With the power that artificial intelligence gives to business comes great responsibility, panelists agreed. Aileen Gemma Smith, head of content strategy for diversity marketing at AWS, led a presentation on the power of responsibility in AI and machine learning with guests Diya Wynn, senior practice manager at AWS AI, and Vipul Nagrath, senior vice-president for product development at ADP.
“The work that we do can have a profound impact on the world and drive real change,” Smith said. “That’s why we’re all here.” Companies are on a shared journey with their customers, she said. Businesses have to untangle some of the issues surrounding AI and machine learning: bias, fairness, explainability, robustness, security, transparency, privacy and governance.
“Responsible AI starts with people and action, building diverse teams to design and develop,” Smith said. “AI brings more perspectives to the table.” That effort has to start at the educational level, she said, and must be a partnership of public, private and government efforts.
AI’s Capabilities Must Be Balanced With A Human Touch
Astronaut and Director
of Human Space Flight, Axiom Space
When I was 9, I watched Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the moon, and I thought, ‘Wow. Cool job. I’d like to have that one.’ It became a dream.”
“
PEGGY WHITSON
Peggy Whitson spent 22 years as a NASA astronaut, performing 10 space walks and three long-duration missions. “One of the most important things I’ve learned in life is that achieving your goals is not always a straight path,” she said at the start of a session on public sector leadership. She was joined by Max Peterson, vice-president of worldwide public sector at AWS, and Matthew C. Fraser, the chief technology officer for New York City. They discussed the digital transformation of the public sector.
Whitson was the commander of the International Space Station twice and spent more time in space than any American, or any woman worldwide. She now serves as director of human space flight at Axiom Space, where she is slated as the backup commander of Ax-1 and the commander of Ax-2. These are the first private missions to the International Space Station.
“It was 10 years of rejections”
to get in as an astronaut, she said, but “stubbornness kept me in there.” Now that space
flight is booming, she expects
to see continued growth to
fulfill governmental and commercial needs.
Catapulted From A Farm
To A Career In Space
In an executive insights panel, Francessca Vasquez, AWS vice-president of technology and customer solutions, led a discussion about how companies can use culture to get ahead in business. “We’ve all heard the quote ‘culture eats strategy,’” she said. “The most successful organizations of today … what is really setting them apart is their relentless focus on people and the customer.”
She identified the four key areas for success as culture, organization, skills and risk. Justin Gehtland, vice-president of engineering at Nubank, said that’s meant giving parts of their company the tools and freedom they need to respond immediately to customer needs.
Culture challenges resulting from a pandemic-induced turnover of employees have been top of mind, said Sean Scott, chief product development officer at PagerDuty.
“I think half our company is literally new in the last two years,” Scott said. “So how do you instill that culture over Zoom? You have to have lots of repetition, lots of talking about your values, what you’re about and why.”
Keeping Your Culture Intact Over Zoom
Werner Vogels, vice-president and chief technology officer at Amazon.com, talked for nearly two hours about the science behind some of the company’s new products, placed in the context of the natural world. When he spoke about the tiny microservices that run Amazon’s retail side, he compared them to a flock of birds that work together.
A research scientist at Cornell University before joining the company in 2004, Vogels spoke at length about the incoming wave of 3D visualization
visualization for commercial use—seeing virtual shoes on your feet before you buy, for instance—and for industry simulations. He compared the systems that will make it affordable to the processes that underlie sight.
“It’s a bit like how we as humans work,” he said. “We all think we have such brilliant peripheral vision. It’s not true. It’s our brains that stitch things together and fill in the gaps.”
Using that approach (and tools like AWS Ambit Scenario Designer and AWS SimSpace Weaver) makes 3D simulation and rendering more affordable,
he said.
The Future Of Technology Looks A Lot Like The
Natural World
Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer, Amazon.com
I honestly think that 3D will be soon as prevalent, as pervasive, as video
is now.”
“
WERNER VOGELS
