Digital Leaders AI Pulse Issue #0

Welcome to the preview edition of The AI Pulse for Digital Leaders. A curated collection of essential articles, commentaries, and news stories from reputable sources that bring insight to digital leaders on the principles and practices of delivering AI-at-Scale.

Highlights from this edition: the latest material on the struggles for AI to deliver value, recent moves across the world to regulate AI, and ways to address a lack of data transparency.

AI for Good

As AI becomes more widespread, Joseph Roundtree Foundation have published an important report exploring how to find a middle path between the idealised potential, and messy reality, of government using data and AI to shape public policymaking.

In an extract from her book “From Pessimism to Promise: Lessons from the global south on designing inclusive tech”, Payal Aroroa considers what happens when “AI for Good” goes wrong.

A new education content store for training generative AI will pool government documents including curriculum guidance, lesson plans and anonymized pupil assessments to be used by AI companies to train their tools. The Government also published new research on parent and pupil attitudes towards the use of AI in education.

Learn what happens when waste management companies address safety, efficiency, and maintenance challenges with artificial intelligence technologies.

Bias and Ethics

A key challenge in AI adoption is a lack of data transparency. MIT researchers have developed an easy-to-use tool that could improve accuracy and reduce bias.

The UK government has signed the first international treaty on AI in a move that aims to prevent misuses of the technology, such as spreading misinformation or using biased data to make decisions.

A study by Code First Girls and Tech Talent Charter has found that women are 40% more likely than men to be impacted by job automation.

Cyber Security

A very helpful review of the variety of tools now available to help in different aspects of trustworthy AI.

The challenge to maintain compliance with AI regulations is driving significant changes to compliance processes and teams. Here is a summary of the issues they face.

Data & Decision Making

As AI is more widely adopted, organizations need to review their policies on AI-based decision making. Here is a very useful summary of the legal questions that arise when AI is used in this way.

Innovation & Collaboration

The latest data from Meta shows that Llama models are approaching 350 million downloads to date (more than 10x the downloads compared to this time last year), and they were downloaded more than 20 million times in the last month alone.

Productivity & Efficiency

What’s holding UK government back from moving from pilots to broad AI adoption? This Institute for Government report highlights some of the issues blocking progress.

Optimizing sales management is one of the primary targets for driving value from AI adoption. AI assistants are transforming sales by acting as digital coaches, analysts, and advisors to salespeople.

A look at how healthcare and life sciences companies are using AI to drive efficiencies in operations.

Regulation and Compliance

This UNESCO policy brief provides a detailed overview of the different regulatory approaches to AI being developed by legislative bodies around the world. It discusses nine emerging regulatory approaches, each illustrated with specific cases worldwide, and concludes with recommendations for policymakers.

As AI regulation advances, here is a useful summary of SB 1047, the AI regulation recently adopted by California’s state legislature, one of the US’s first and most significant frameworks for governing artificial intelligence systems.

OpenAI and Anthropic have signed a deal with the US AI Safety Institute to give the U.S. government early access to their frontier models for safety evaluation.

Sustainability

A detailed review of AI and sustainability. It concludes that three practices will help companies deploy a more carbon-conscious “eco-AI” approach to their technology and sustainability priorities.

A new publication that describes the results of an important study into the relationship between AI, industrial robots, and renewable energy consumption. It concluder that policymakers and investors should prioritize funding for AI solutions that promote renewable energy adoption, while it advises industry managers to strategically modify their use of industrial robots to reduce their environmental impact.

Workforce & Skills

As AI is being adopted in professional services areas such as legal firms, this article asks if we are in danger of losing foundational skills.

There is growing use of “shadow AI tools” in the workplace. This is a useful summary of why, what employees see as the benefits, and the risks that this creates.

Rather than helping candidates stand out, it seems that the use of AI in creating job applications is leading to a “sea of sameness”.