GLOSSARY: 5 Things You Need to Know from Day 2 EmTech Next 2023

Hello There,

Yesterday was fascinating. The second day of EmTech Next was all about the potentials (and pitfalls) of generative AI. Topics that hold a special place in my heart! I was lucky enough to sit down with some of the most influential people using AI to transform how people work—perhaps even changing what work is.

Here's some of what I learned from day 2 of EmTech Next.

5 takeaways from Day 2 of EmTech Next 2023

To regulate or not to regulate?—AI is changing everything, which raises big questions about how to ensure it becomes a tide that lifts all boats and not just a few. That discussion often comes down to the issue of regulation. Should AI be regulated and who should do the regulating? Dan Huttenlocher, Dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, talked about the need for some kind of oversight but warned of the risks of over-regulation. For Huttenlocher, a priority is coming up with a new reference frame that will help us put the current technological revolution in perspective. He thinks we first need to work to understand what we're dealing with, especially its social implications, before acting to constrain it.
Transparency and litigation—Mike Capps, CEO of AI firm Diveplane, talked about how litigators might beat the regulators to it if companies start to get hit by lawsuits around their use (or misuse) of data and aggressive deployment of AI. This would mean the new rules of play would be hammered out in the courts rather than by governments. It could get messy, but also quickly push companies to be more transparent and accountable.
Cybersecurity challenges of AI—May Wang, CTO of Internet of Things Security at Palo Alto Networks, spoke about the darker side of generative AI, specifically how it has given millions more people the ability to produce spam and malware. But we are also seeing new AI tools to detect and defend against it. Hacking is entering a new era, with both sides using AI against the other.
Google's radical product update—Aparna Pappu, VP and General Manager at Google Workspace gave an inside view of life inside Google as it scrambles to embed generative AI across its Workspace products, from Gmail to Docs to Sheets and more. With 3 billion people using these tools, no amount of testing will prepare Google fully for what we'll see once this tech is in the wild. Will this spread the weirdness and wonder of generative AI even wider? Or as my colleague Melissa Heikkilä joked yesterday, will this make generative AI feel boring—yet another feature in familiar productivity tools.
Building an AI coding copilot—Idan Gazit, Senior Director of research at GitHub Next, gave one answer for what AI assistants can do for professionals. He walked us through how GitHub has been iterating on its design for an AI assistant for software developers since 2020 (an age in AI years). Getting the balance right between keeping creative workers in the flow without taking over control is key.

I hope you get a chance to catch the EmTech Next sessions on-demand if you weren't able to join us live yesterday. And if you aren't registered, I hope to see you at another MIT Technology Review event in the future.

Thanks for joining us,