DURHAM — The fourth annual Grep-a-plooza kicked off with enthusiasm on Thursday morning as Joe Colopy, the GrepBeat “Godfather,” took the stage. A vocal crowd was on hand to welcome the former Bronto CEO as he introduced the day’s keynote speaker, North Carolina’s first Deputy Chief of Policy and AI, I-Sah Hsieh.
Previously the Global Manager of International Development at SAS, Hsieh will be working with Governor Josh Stein and the state’s Chief Information Officer Teena Piccione to create governance and policy while also advocating for the responsible government use of AI.
Interviewed by Susan Wall of CED, Hsieh was enthusiastic about his new role and mission. Although he has been a government employee for only 8 short weeks, Hsieh is already focused on his mandate: to “benefit and protect the 11 million citizens of North Carolina with artificial intelligence.”
The five-letter word
Hsieh’s conversation with Wall started and ended with one word: trust. Hsieh is a big believer in the importance of trust, making the point that in any industry, it’s of the biggest competitive advantages that any company can have.
“You can have the best technology,” Hsieh said, “but without trust, it won’t go anywhere.”
In many ways, AI has a difficult relationship with the concept of trust. To start, there is considerable concern about how some models have been developed, and skepticism of the people wielding the technology. Its speedy evolution has left many uninformed and anxious about the potential impacts. That rapid growth is also putting pressure on companies to adopt AI features quickly, and in some cases without adequate vetting, leading to further erosion in the reputation of both companies and the technology.
Hsieh recognizes this anxiety in the public and is planning to approach all projects with an emphasis on developing trust through quality experiences and responsible development.
“For whom does this fail?”
Among his priorities, Hsieh is seeking to ask of each project, “For whom does this fail?”
"Engineers are used to solving problems," Hsieh explained, "but aren't always trained to see the blindspots."
His solution to this is to bring in more diversity in AI decision making, including different job functions, experiences, and backgrounds. These perspectives will help find the flaws earlier, and design for the kind of broad user base represented by millions of NC citizens.
https://maritdigital.com/2024/05/02/grace-ueng-fireside-chat-with-entrepreneur-investor-joe-colopy/
AI and Business
For the Grepapalooza audience of small businesses, startups, and investors, much of the conversation around AI was on how – or even if – to utilize it in products and services. New companies face intense pressure to incorporate some form of artificial intelligence, but it is often unclear what value this will bring.
As Hsieh pointed out, the use cases will take time and education.
“Responsible AI requires some muscles we just haven’t used before,” he said. “I’m full time in this and still have to train my brain. Any highly repetitive task – who’s going to want to do that? Think AI.”
Returning to the theme of trust, Hsieh encouraged investors in the audience to evaluate the AI use cases with care.
“Investors need to be asking ‘how are we using AI to build and maintain trust?’”
Delivering for NC Businesses
According to Hsieh, this region is delivering more scholarly papers on AI than any place else in the country right now. This kind of interest and output points to another priority for North Carolina: AI literacy.
Hsieh is excited about finding winning AI use cases for the government, and using those as a model for others. Mandates for accessibility and broad use cases will also make end user experiences critical. If done well, these projects can help establish comfort and trust in AI for the region.
“With a little coordination, we could have a really powerful AI-ready, not just AI literate, but an AI-fluent workforce,” said Hsieh.
He also wants the public sector to help the private sector develop solutions balanced with privacy. Hsieh discussed a desire to develop synthetic data for the state that would emulate real-world data without including personally identifiable information. These types of digital stand-ins can help businesses build solutions with confidence in how they will function in the real world.
Just two months into his new role, Hsieh clearly has lots of ideas and plenty to do. No doubt there will be much more coming from this new position, and while plans are still pending, Hsieh did hint that we should all stay tuned to the governor’s office for more AI and business development.
