December 22, 2021

Sabir x Reid Blackman Part 1

TL; DR

Machine learning is providing a host of new opportunities for medicine, science, and business. We’re living in an age dominated by AI, and if you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, or forward-thinking innovator, you can use AI to your advantage.

Reid Blackman is the founder and CEO of Virtue, a company that specializes in data and AI ethics. He is at the forefront of AI innovation and was happy to share some insights into the future of this sector and how it can impact businesses and lives across the United States.

For example, machine learning and AI is already being used to:

Create apps that seem to have been taken from the realms of science-fiction, including one that aims to record cat meows to understand our feline friends and ultimately decode this common vocalization.
Change the medical sector for the better. Machine learning could predict how likely you are to contract certain illnesses and what kind of lifestyle changes can reduce your chances.
Improve the drug discovery process. As things stand, the process for finding and testing a new drug is long and laborious. But with help from machine learning, it could reduce those timeframes considerably. It means that more effective drugs will make it to market, potentially creating more life-saving medications and vaccines.
Streamline the hiring process. The idea is that machine learning can understand who the perfect candidate is based on a preset list of criteria, along with data provided by current employees. It could mean that interviews are a thing of the past.

And there’s more—so much more! AI and machine learning are changing the game and will shape the future. However, these technologies could also cause some problems, including:

Biased Selections: As machine learning is based on data, and data is created by biased humans, the programs themselves can also be biased. It’s an issue that’s hard to avoid and one that Blackman faces on a daily basis.
Privacy Issues: Customers are more concerned than ever about how their data is being used. If they don’t give permission for their details to be used, then it can’t be fed into a machine learning program, and if other consumers follow their lead, those programs won’t have the data that they need to work.
Bad Intentions: Machine learning can be used to create fake videos, as we have recently seen with the Deep Fake controversy. As long as there is enough content to draw upon (including images, audio, and video) then bad actors can use machine learning for nefarious purposes.
High Unemployment: The future that we were all warned about could be upon us—robots really could be taking your job. Of course, some additional jobs will be created, but most will be taken away, and as the population continues to grow, it will likely create mass unemployment all over the developed world.

There are a lot of exciting technologies and concepts being discussed here, so make sure you read the full article below to learn more.

As the founder and CEO of VIRTUE, a company devoted to the mitigation of ethical risk, Reid Blackman is perfectly placed to highlight the benefits and dangers of AI and machine learning.

In the latest episode of This Week With Sabir, I spoke with Reid about the future of this technology and how it’s impacting businesses across the United States.

You can watch the full hour-long discussion above, but in this guide, I will be delving a little deeper into the topic and discussing some of the most commonly asked questions and the central concerns regarding AI ethics, data ethics, and machine learning.