It's not a "foregone conclusion" that AI will outsmart humans, expert says

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND – Implementing AI in a way that augments — not replaces — humanity's touch is top of mind for companies around the world.

Why it matters: Many workers are nervous about the impact that AI may have on their jobs.

Axios' Ina Fried and Courtenay Brown moderated conversations with Max Tegmark, president of the Future of Life Institute that focuses on mitigating technology risks, and Calm CEO David Ko in Davos. The Jan. 20 conversations were sponsored by Workday.

What they're saying: "I actually do not think it's a foregone conclusion that we will build AGI [artificial general intelligence] machines that can outsmart us all. Not because we can't … but rather we might just not want to," Tegmark said.

• "So why are obsessing about trying to build some kind of digital god that's going to replace us, if we instead can build all these super powerful AI tools that augment us and empower us?" Tegmark asked.

Ko said that implementing AI at Calm, a mental health-focused app offering meditations to users, has "been a process."

• "When you work at a company that really focuses on employee wellness and their own mental wellbeing and we start to talk about AI, that does give a lot of folks anxiety," Ko said.
• "We've had to really talk about how we want to use AI going forward in more of a human-centric manner," Ko continued.

One of Calm's earlier integrations of AI was an AI-powered sleep story that received negative feedback from app users saying "it wasn't very calming" due to the knowledge that it was AI-centered.

• "So that's been the push-pull that we've had to kind of work through," Ko said.

• Now, the company has found success and positive feedback from app users in using AI-generated voices from actors or other well-known individuals for storytelling.

Sponsored content:

In a View From the Top sponsored segment, Workday general manager of HiredScore Athena Karp said that AI's ability to learn makes it unprecedented.

• "We've never had technology that could learn from examples. We've always had technology that … you give it instructions and then it follows the instructions and then you do the work on top of it," Karp said.
• New AI technologies "can learn how you do it and what you do, and then depending on the work, assist you," Karp said.