Thierry Warin opened the morning speaking on the SKEMA Global AI Lab and the role of augmented intelligence in society. He explained that the purpose of the laboratory is to prepare a new generation of leaders ready to manage 21st-century companies in the 21st-century knowledge economy with a 21st-century toolbox: “It is the role of educational institutions to inform, educate and show future decision makers the possibilities of these new technologies and their ever-increasing risks. This is what SKEMA Business School's new global lab in augmented intelligence intends to do.”
He also took the opportunity to send a message to politicians. “Some governments claim to prioritise engineering, computing and the exact sciences in order to leverage the development of society. In fact, all its competences in machines and code is indeed very important, but it is also necessary to invest in the application of these technologies.” According to Warin, it is the social and human sciences that are responsible for working out how to make all of that innovation work effectively for resolving people’s actual problems and humanity's challenges.
After Warin’s speech, guests from many fields participated in two panels, sharing their experiences.
The first panel was “How these changes impact society” and mediated by Prof. Hércules Neves, from SKEMA and senior scientist of Fiocruz. The guests were José Henrique Dias Salvador of Hospital Materdei, Raphael Miranda of Anglo American, Hegel Botinha of Grupo Selpe, Paulo Vicente of Fundação Dom Cabral, Gustavo Macena from FIEMG and Allan Brandt of Brandt Meio Ambiente.
The second panel was mediated by Vinicio Stort, executive director of Minas Gerais Development Bank. The guests were Nathalie de Marcellis-Warin of Cirano, Paula Figueiredo of Figueiredo Law, Ricardo Cabral Santiago of RCS Holding and Renata Salvador of Materdei Hospital.
For Geneviève Poulingue, associate dean of SKEMA in Belo campus this was a great opportunity to learn and emphasise the importance of ethics: “We all learned a lot. Personally, this was the first time I realised how the world is really transforming. AI and digital transformation are buzz words we hear all the time. Thierry Warin was able to help us understand what’s happening in this world. It was a great lecture. To be prepared for the upcoming transformations brought about by AI, we need to be able to use the right tools, we need to be analytical, and we need to be ethical as the power of big data is so huge. This ethical approach applies to all of business. If not, there will be a disaster. The event was a very clear demonstration about SKEMA’s choices in this digital revolution”.
Photo credit: MPEREZ