(Singapore, 23 April 2020) In a bid to make artificial intelligence(AI) more explainable, the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School today announced the launch of Center on AI Technology for Humankind.
School officials say the new research facility will aim to promote a human-centered mindset in the use of AI technology by conducting research in the areas of leadership and authority, augmentation of human capital, as well as trust and ethics.
“AI is touted as the new hero of society that may match or even surpass human intelligence in the future. However, we should examine AI development in the context of co-creation with humans,” said AiTH’s Founder and Director Prof De Cremer, Provost’s Chair in the Department of Management and Organisation at NUS Business School.
Prof. Cremer was recently named one of the world’s top 30 management gurus and speakers by research organization Global Gurus. He expects AiTH to bring researchers, thought- and business leaders together to nurture an intellectual and value-driven ecosystem for better AI technologies.
“We hope to develop insights that will inform policymakers, the industry, and the public on how AI technologies can be advanced while still maintaining a focus on humans,” he added.
The professor explained to Fortune Times during today’s virtual press conference that AI has huge potentials to change the way of human life. For example, it is being used to achieve physical distancing, food delivery, surgery, and contact tracing during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
However, there are still bottlenecks of AI-related research and development.
“The AI sincerity is different from human sincerity,” he said, noting that the world is still not globally transparent much because of the data-related trust issues.
In conjunction with its launch today, AiTH has released Asia’s AI Agenda report, a research project which it collaborated with MIT Technology Review Insights.
The survey was conducted with more than 1,000 senior executives from a variety of businesses in the world to examine companies’ technological savviness, their use, and challenges with AI in business over the next three years.
One of its key findings is that organizations in the Asia-Pacific region, compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world, are less willing to share data with third parties.
Besides, even though 96% of Asian respondents deployed AI in 2019, higher than the 85% average of respondents from the other regions, the Asia-Pacific region is less concerned than other places about managing digital changes in the workplace because of its experience with AI implementation generally.
To address these critical issues, the center has vowed to focus its research on leadership and authority, augmentation of human capital, and trust and ethics.
Working with Imperial College Business School, Yale Law School, and Microsoft as its academic partners, Aith plans to launch projects to answer crucial AI issues.
Among them: how AI-empowered business models should be employed in trustworthy and ethical ways; how AI can be used to enhance human well-being; and what the enhanced relationship between man and machine means for the future of work.
Distinguished Professor Andrew Rose, Dean of NUS Business School, said, “Through AiTH, NUS Business School hopes to contribute insights that will shape a better future. We look forward to seeing AiTH’s research help businesses, policymakers, and society make better decisions integrating AI into our lives.”
