AI and technology: what’s next?

Ginni Rometti Former CEO IBM

The buzz surrounding artificial intelligence and mass layoffs roiling the technology industry resonates with Ginni Rometty, whose 40-year career at IBM culminated in her becoming CEO in 2012.

Rometty began her tenure as IBM’s first woman CEO just after the company’s AI-powered computer Watson outwitted two of the most successful contestants in the history of the game show “Jeopardy!”

Rometty, 65, also had to occasionally jettison employees in an extension of cost-cutting layoffs that began in the 1990s as IBM adjusted to waves of technological upheaval that undercut its revenue.

She recently spoke with The Associated Press about her career (she retired in 2020) and the state of the tech industry now.

What are your thoughts about the current state of AI, especially with so much attention centered on Microsoft’s use of the ChatGPT language tool?

I am a bit worried about that. One thing I learned in the early days (of AI) is that this is a people and trust issue. It is not a technology issue. Because of how fast ChatGPT has spread, people almost immediately noticed it wasn’t always right yet it acted authoritatively and it did some things that our values didn’t appreciate.

You have to manage the upside and downside of the technology in parallel at the same time. And that is not what has always happened with technology. We have celebrated all the positives and then all of a sudden said, “Oh, there are some bad things here.”

Is it important for governments to impose some regulations on AI?

What we need is something I call “precision regulation” because I am afraid that in an effort to control AI we will completely inhibit the positive side of it. We will lose the upside as we try to manage the downside. My example of precision regulation is to regulate its use, not the technology. Talk about the areas you think it’s OK to use it in and the area where you think it should not be used in.

Have you been surprised by the magnitude of layoffs sweeping the tech industry?

Those that over-hired (during the pandemic) are adjusting. I also think you see a reaction in this economy to what is being valued as not growth at any price. It’s profitable growth.

And so now I think for the very first time efficiency is entering the picture for some companies. It may be because the environment changed. It may be because someone attacks your business model.

How do you think Elizabeth Holmes’ recent conviction for fraud while she was running Theranos has affected the perception of women leaders in tech?

To me, she doesn’t define the future of women in tech. I consider that situational. I think there are things to learn from it, but I think it speaks more to the great hope that people have for technology. You don’t want to set the expectation so high that you can’t make it.