The balance between AI innovation and AI regulation will be in the spotlight as Cognizant takes to the stage at London Tech Week 2024.
AI is reaching new frontiers of possibility, with every week bringing new advances. We’re seeing beneficial applications, like the ability to accurately diagnose disease, but also harmful ones, like deepfake impersonations of celebrities and politicians.
With AI’s potential for good and ill, it’s no surprise that regulators are highly aware and taking proactive measures. The European Union AI Act is set to be the first law regulating AI with others expected to follow suit. The AI Summit Seoul, South Korea — co-hosted with the UK recently and a follow-up to the Global AI Safety Summit held at Bletchley Park in the UK late last year — emphasised the need for global collaboration and sought consensus on AI safety and international cooperation. The summit focused on setting risk thresholds, promoting transparency, and securing research funding to ensure ethical AI development and fair distribution of its benefits while addressing potential risks — a big step forward.
But the key question now is whether these regulations will stifle AI innovation or make it stronger, safer, and better. And, as digital industries, the debate will be about whether to support the new regulations or to advocate for a lighter touch to bring AI applications to market sooner.
Innovation vs. regulation: deciding the future of AI
These are vital questions for our times, and I’m looking forward to discussing them on the Corporate Innovation Stage at London Tech Week 2024 at 11.15am on Tuesday 11 June.
I’ll be on a panel with some of the brightest thinkers on AI innovation and regulation today, including Kai Zenner, digital policy adviser at the European Parliament, Emma Wright, director of the Interparliamentary Forum on Emerging Technologies, and Zinnya del Villar, data science research director at the Data-Pop Alliance.
We’ll be looking at the trajectories of AI and the regulatory environment, to see if they’re in step or if one is outpacing the other. We’ll be thinking about whether it makes sense to increase regulation or relax it to allow beneficial new technologies to come to market faster. And we’ll be sharing advice and experiences around how to balance AI innovation with regulatory compliance.
More insights from Cognizant specialists at London Tech Week
And that’s not all from Cognizant at London Tech Week. Here are some other sessions where you can catch my colleagues sharing their insights and expertise or meet with us at Booth 401:
Ready to lead in an AI-empowered future: David Fearne, Cognizant’s Global Director of Generative AI, will lead this bespoke roundtable in the Leaders’ Zone on at 1.30pm on Monday.
The power of AI to transform industries: David Fearne joins leaders from Reckitt, GSK, Qatar University and UrbanGeekz to discuss AI’s promise for vertical sectors, at 3pm on Monday.
Mastering Gen AI use case design for transformative impact: David Fearne shares his expertise in identifying and evaluating Gen AI use cases, in a Cognizant Learning Lab session at 9am on Tuesday.
Paving the way for an AI-enabled sustainable future for enterprise: Irene Infante, Head of Experience Design at Zone, a Cognizant company, joins leaders from IBM, AVEVA and Greenhill to discuss how AI innovation can help to tackle climate challenges, at 12.20pm on Tuesday.
The leadership guide for effectively implementing AI tools: Mike Turner, Global VP of Software and Platform Engineering Services, joins C-level executives from Coursera and ONQOR to discuss new skillsets required to leverage AI tools, at 2.40pm on Tuesday.
Gen AI hackathon: David Fearne will lead a Cognizant Learning Lab session in the Henley Suite at 11.15am on Wednesday, where participants will work on crafting real-world solutions using Gen AI.
Get prepared for the new ‘iPhone moment’
This era of AI is already being hailed as the second ‘iPhone’ moment. To make the most of its potential, leaders need the fundamentals for AI success, clarity on the short-and-long-term opportunities, and a collaborative ecosystem to realise the benefits.
London Tech Week 2024 will be a great place to build on all of these pillars, and I’m looking forward to some inspiring and thought-provoking discussions over the three days. Hope to see you there.
