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How mobile operators can drive collaboration with start-ups to unlock innovation at scale

How mobile operators can drive collaboration

Start-ups along with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a key force in the innovation ecosystem worldwide, and in emerging markets in particular. They understand local customers’ needs and can develop solutions to their problems in very agile ways, sometimes bringing disruption to century-old businesses. Some have made incredible breakthroughs in the past few years and changed the lives of many. Like M-KOPA Solar who have equipped hundreds of thousands of African homes with pay-as-you-go solar systems, or ride-sharing platform Ola providing extra livelihood to hundreds of thousands of drivers in India. However, such success stories should not conceal the fact that for the majority of them, reaching scale is a real struggle.

Mobile operators on the other hand have touched the lives of billions in low- and middle-income countries in the past couple decades. Mobile phones are ubiquitous and the main way to access the internet and other important services. They are a vital lifeline in the case of disasters. They provide communication channels – like voice, SMS, or USSD – that are easy to use and accessible to anyone who owns a mobile. With mobile money services, they have offered a payment solution with over 400 million accounts worldwide, that addresses the shortcomings of many local banking systems. On the ground, they have deployed powerful distribution networks that employ millions. Nevertheless, they face challenges that make it hard for them to keep up with the accelerating pace of innovation.

On paper, this is a perfect match: mobile operators can help start-ups and SMEs unlock scale, and in return stay on top of the game when it comes to innovation. Unfortunately, the reality is that this type of collaboration does not always happen naturally. That being said, there are some very encouraging signs that mobile operators are taking significant steps. Here are a few examples:

Even though more still needs to be done to realise the full potential of collaboration, the examples above are very positive indications that mobile operators are taking concrete actions to address the challenges local start-ups and SMEs face, and to create mutual trust. The GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator is committed to working with all stakeholders in the ecosystem to ensure more partnerships are built, and as a result more products and services are able to bring positive socio-economic impact to local citizens at scale. And we’re looking forward to discussing some of the ways in which we can make that happen with a whole range of stakeholders in the B2B Dialogue on Harnessing Disruptive Innovation at ITU Telecom World 2016 in Bangkok this November.

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Making money from meeting the SDGs? An overarching approach to sustainable development.

Making money from meeting the SDGs

I am delighted to have been asked to moderate the session on Making money from meeting the SDGs?” at ITU Telecom World in Bangkok on Monday 14th November (4:45 PM – 6:00 PM, Jupiter 10), although I wonder a little why I have been chosen for this task given my past criticisms of the SDGs!  Perhaps the “?” in the session title will give me a little freedom to explore some of the many challenges and complexities in this theme.  Following in the footsteps of the Millennium Development Goals (2000), the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) still generally focus on the idea that economic growth will eliminate poverty; indeed, they assert that poverty can truly be ended.  This is a myth, and a dangerous one. For those who define poverty in a relative sense, poverty will always be with us.  It can certainly be reduced, but never ended.   It is therefore good to see the SDGs also focusing on social inclusion, with SDG 10 explicitly addressing inequality.  We need to pay much more attention to ways through which ICTs can thus reduce inequality, rather than primarily focusing on their contribution to economic growth, which has often actually led to increasing inequality.

This session will explore the implications of such tensions specifically for the role of ICT businesses in delivering the SDGs.  Key questions to be examined include:

  • How can the ICT sector contribute to accelerating the achievement of the SDGs by providing ICT-enabled solutions and building feasible business models?
  • Is the SDG agenda relevant for the ICT industry?
  • What roles should the ICT industry, and its corporate social responsibility (CSR) departments in particular, play in working towards the SDGs?
  • Can the SDG framework provide an opportunity to accelerate transformative ICT-enabled solutions around new solutions like big data or IoT?

Underlying these are difficult issues about the ethics of making money from development, and the extent to which the ICT sector is indeed sustainable.  All too often, the private sector, governments and even civil society are now using the idea of “development” to build their ICT interests, rather than actually using ICTs to contribute to development understood as reducing inequalities; we increasingly have “development for ICTs” (D4ICT) rather than “ICTs for development” (ICT4D).  To be sure, businesses have a fundamentally important role in contributing to economic growth, but there is still little agreement, for example, on how best to deliver connectivity to the poorest and most marginalized, so that inequality can be reduced. As my forthcoming book argues, we need to reclaim ICTs truly for development in the interests of the poorest and most marginalized.

We have a great panel with whom to explore these difficult questions.  Following opening remarks by Chaesub Lee (Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU), we will dive straight into addressing the above questions with the following panelists (listed in alphabetical order of first names):

  • Astrid Tuminez (Senior Director, Government Affairs. Microsoft)
  • Lawrence Yanovitch (President of GSMA Foundation)
  • Luis Neves (Chairman Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), and Climate Change and Sustainability Officer, Executive Vice President, at Deutsche Telekom Group)
  • Mai Oldgard (Head of Sustainability, Telenor)
  • Tomas Lamanauskas (Group Director Public Policy, VimpelCom).

Magic happens when people from different backgrounds are brought together to discuss challenging issues.  This session will therefore not have any formal presentations, but will instead seek to engage the panelists in discussion amongst themselves and with the audience.  We will generate new ideas that participants will be able to take away and apply in their everyday practices.  Looking forward to seeing you on the Monday afternoon of Telecom World in Bangkok!

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Responsible Artificial Intelligence

Responsible Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help us in many ways: it can perform hard, dangerous or boring work for us, can help us to save lives and cope with disasters, can entertain us and make our daily life more comfortable.

Advances in AI are occurring at high speed. The potential risks and problems of AI technology are filling newspapers (e.g. Observer, 2015, the Guardian, 2015) with discussions ranging from killer robots to privacy concerns, the consequences of AI for labour and social equality (Daily Express, 2016), or superintelligence (CNN, 2014). However, rather than being a threat to our existence or plotting to take over the rule of the world, AI is already changing our daily lives, almost entirely in ways that improve human health, safety, and productivity.

In the coming years we can expect AI systems to be used increasingly in domains such as transportation, service robots, healthcare, education, low-resource communities, public safety and security, employment and workplace, and entertainment (100 Year AI report). But these systems must be introduced in ways that build trust and understanding, and respect human and civil rights.

There is, in fact, a lot to be positive about. Currently, over a million persons die annually in traffic accidents, more than half of which are caused by human error. Even if intelligent self-driving cars do cause accidents and deaths, forecasts show a sharp decrease in road casualties associated with the increase in self-driving cars. Similarly, jobs will be lost – but maybe repetitive, monotonous, demeaning jobs should be lost, freeing up people for more meaningful and joyful occupations.

AI developments will contribute to a much-needed redefinition of fundamental human values, including our current understanding of work, wealth and responsibility – all of which will be part of the debate in the panel session AI: is the future finally here? at ITU Telecom World 2016 in Bangkok this November.

Work: As AI systems replace people in many traditional jobs, we must rethink the meaning of work. Jobs change, but more importantly, the character of jobs will change. Meaningful occupations are those that contribute to the welfare of society, self-fulfilment and the advancement of mankind. These do not necessarily equate with current ‘paid jobs’. AI systems can free us up for these occupations, allow us to be rewarded for them, to care for each other, engage in arts, hobbies and sports,  enjoy nature, meditate –  all those things that give us energy and make us happy.

Wealth: Technological developments in the last century led to mass production and mass consumption. Until very recently, having has been the main goal, and competition the main drive: “I am what I have”. Digital developments, including AI, favour openness over competition: open data, open source, open access, and so on. The drive is now quickly shifting to sharing: “I am what I share”. Combined with the changing role of work, this novel view on wealth requires a new view on economics and finance.

Responsibility: As AI moves from a tool to a teammate, perhaps the most important result of AI advances is the need to rethink responsibility. Developments in autonomy and machine learning are rapidly enabling AI systems to decide and act without direct human control. Greater autonomy must come with greater responsibility, even when the notions of machine autonomy and responsibility are necessarily different from those that apply to people. Machines are already making decisions. We need to deal with longer chains of responsibility, and with responsibility being extended to refer to machines and corporations.

Responsibility contributes to trust and includes accountability, i.e. being able to explain and justify decisions. Our trust in other people is partly based on our ability to understand their ways of doing (by putting ourselves in their place), but this does not hold true for machines. Trust in machines must then be based on transparency. Algorithm development has so far been led by the goal of improving performance, leading to opaque black boxes. Putting human values at the core of AI systems calls for a mind-shift of researchers and developers towards the goal of improving transparency rather than performance, which will lead to novel and exciting algorithms, turning deep learning into valuable learning.

Several initiatives are currently focusing on the ethical and societal aspects of AI development, including the IEEE Initiative on the Ethics of Autonomous Systems and the Partnership on AI.

I foresee an exciting future coming forth from AI developments. We are ultimately responsible. As researchers and developers, to take fundamental human values as the basis of our design and implementation decisions. And as users and owners of AI systems, to ensure a continuous chain of responsibility and trust encompassing the acts and decisions of the systems as these learn and adapt to our society.