Responsible AI/DI Summit 2018 Highlights











The Inaugural Summit
The AI/DI Summit was a first-of-its-kind, half-day event dedicated to understanding how AI and DI work together with people and organizations to ensure the most important problems are addressed, and that technology is deployed responsibly to solve the most challenging problems facing businesses, governments, and all organizations worldwide.
With a mix of visionary and applied presentations and conversations, including plenty of time for Q and A, presenters explored the capabilities of responsible DI and AI as they exist today, their potential for the future, and their perspectives on how the journey will take shape. Joined by many global thought leaders, both on stage and in the audience, over 150 attendees not only heard from innovators and tech titans, but were given the opportunity to ask questions and share their thoughts on the challenges and opportunities they face.
About
At the inaugural Responsible AI/DI summit, we discussed:
What responsible AI and Decision Intelligence (DI) is and why companies like Google and others consider them essential.`
How AI and DI work together to ensure the development of ethical and responsible technology systems, by avoiding unintended consequences, modeling the context of AI systems, as well as the causal complexity necessary to solve the world’s wicked problems.
How we, as a new discipline, can work together going forward to continuously ensure technology is being used responsibly and ethically.
WHAT
A half-day meeting to align senior thought leaders around how AI and DI can powerfully and responsibly address the most complex problems
of our time.
WHEN
September 19, 2018
3 – 7:30pm
WHERE
SAP Labs | 3410 Hillview Avenue,
Palo Alto, CA 94304, Building 1
Agenda
Introduction & Welcome with Ferose
3:00 – 3:25pm
VR Ferose will introduce the conference, sharing his vision of the power and dangers of technology, along with some ideas for solutions.
Level Set:
Understanding AI, DI, DA, and Responsibility
3:30 – 4:00pm
Moderator: Yuva Athur
Speakers: Lorien Pratt, Somik Raha
This session will introduce artificial intelligence, decision intelligence, and decision analysis, along with how they support responsible deployment of technology.
AI/DI in Action
4:05 – 4:50pm
Moderator: Tim McElgunn
Speakers: Gladys Kong, Mark Zangari, Kamesh Raghavendra
Responsible AI/DI case studies, including best practices and take-home messages / lessons learned.
Fireside Chats with Cassie Kozyrkov and Barney Pell
4:55– 5:25pm
Interviewer: Michele Collucci
Insights from these Responsible AI/DI global thought leaders.
Panel Discussion:
Pulling it all Together: Balancing Organization Goals with Responsibility in Complex Decisions
5:30 – 6:15pm
Moderator: John Furrier
Speakers: Steve Omohundro, Barney Pell, Somik Raha, Robert Sutton
This session will take a look at how organizations can build a framework to ensure a responsible approach to AI, DI, and data, and the implications and unintended consequences of deploying these powerful technologies.
Closing Remarks
6:20 – 6:30pm
VR Ferose will share his closing remarks for the summit, providing key takeaways for attendees and organizations.
Networking Hour
6:30 – 7:30pm
Enjoy refreshments and network with Responsible AI/DI thought leaders.
Speakers
VR Ferose
Senior VP & Head of Globalization Services at SAP SE
Ferose heads SAP’s Globalization Services unit and is responsible for enabling the global adoption of SAP products. The unit consists of 1200+ employees spread across 40+ countries across the globe with a mission of empowering all businesses to run compliant locally and compete globally. Prior to his current position, Ferose was Manager of SAP Labs in India. In 2012, the company was recognized as one of the “Great Places to Work” in India for its very first time. He is also Director on the Board of Specialisterne Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation with the goal to create one million jobs for people with autism and similar challenges, and has co-authored “Gifted, ” a best-seller about people with disabilities.
Cassie Kozyrkov
Chief Decision Scientist at Google
As Chief Decision Scientist at Google Cloud and previously as Chief Data Scientist at Google’s Office of the CTO, Kozyrkov advises leadership teams on decision process, AI strategy, and building data-driven organizations. She works to democratize statistical thinking and machine learning, and is the innovator behind the practice of Decision Intelligence Engineering at Google, where she has trained over 15,000 Googlers in machine learning, statistics, and data-driven decision-making. Kozyrkov’s articles on decision intelligence and more can be found on her Medium blog.
Steve Omohundro
Founder and CEO of Possibility Research
Omohundro has been a scientist, professor, author, software architect, and entrepreneur. He designed the first data parallel language StarLisp, was an award-winning professor, co-founded the Center for Complex Systems Research, wrote the 3D graphics for Mathematica, developed fast neural data structures like balltrees, and made many more contributions to machine learning, machine vision, programming languages, AI Safety, and ensuring that technology is positive for humanity. He is Founder and CEO of Possibility Research and Self-Aware Systems, and advises several AI and blockchain organizations. An internationally recognized thought leader, Steve gives regular interviews at NPR, Tech Emergence, and Singularity 1 on 1.
Lorien Pratt
Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Quantellia
Pratt has been delivering AI and DI solutions for her clients for over 30 years. These include the Human Genome Project, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of Energy, and the Administrative Office of the US Courts. Formerly a computer science professor, Pratt is a popular international speaker and has given two TEDx talks. Her Quantellia team offers AI, DI, and full-stack software solutions to clients worldwide. Previously a leading technology analyst, Pratt has also authored dozens of academic papers, co-edited the book: Learning to Learn, and co-authored the Decision Engineering Primer. Her next book: Link: How Decision Intelligence makes the Invisible Visible (Emerald Press), is in production. With media appearances such as on TechEmergence and GigaOm, Pratt is also listed on the Women Inventors and Innovator’s Mural. Pratt blogs at www.lorienpratt.com.
Mark Zangari
CTO at TheRiskFramework
Mark Zangari is a software industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience. As RFM‘s co-founder and CTO, he is the chief architect behind its technologies and software solutions. Zangari also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Quantellia, whose DI software is embedded in the platforn on which RFM is based. He was formerly CTO of SPATIALinfo, where he launched the company’s US operations and growth into a leading provider of network modeling solutions for telecommunications. During the early 1990s, Zangari was principal architect of the STATPLAY software system—a ground-breaking tool that improved the performance of decision makers when reasoning with statistical data. Mr. Zangari holds degrees in physics, philosophy, and computer science. The recipient of the 1993 British Council Postgraduate Bursary, he held an advanced physics fellowship at Cambridge University. Credited with co-inventing Decision Intelligence, Zangari co-authored The Decision Engineering Primer.
Barney Pell
Founder, Decision Theory
Barney Pell is a technology innovator, entrepreneur, angel investor and advisor. He is Founder of Decision Theory, an incubator, advisory and investment firm focused on artificial intelligence and decision science strategy; Co-Founder and Chairman of LocoMobi, a startup bringing cloud and AI technology to the parking industry; Co-Founder of Moon Express, a startup building a lunar lander robot to open up the Moon for commercial development; and an Associate Founder and serves on the board of trustees for Singularity University. Pell was also Founder and CEO of Powerset, a pioneering startup in natural-language search that was acquired by Microsoft, where he then co-founded Cortana, Microsoft’s conversational assistant. Previously, Pell managed an 85-person Artificial Intelligence R&D organization at NASA.
Gladys Kong
CEO of UberMedia
As CEO of UberMedia, Gladys Kong is an expert in mobile technology and data solutions. Gladys is dedicated to innovating and developing new ideas within technology startups. Since joining the company as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in 2012, Gladys has been responsible for taking it from a social media app development company to a leading mobile advertising technology firm and recruiting one of the best data science teams dedicated to consistently producing data solutions that anticipate and respond to today’s diverse marketplace. In 2016 and 2015, Gladys was named one of Business Insider’s “30 Most Powerful Women in Mobile Advertising.” In 2016, Mobile Marketer named her one of the 25 “Mobile Women to Watch.”
John Furrier
Founder of SiliconANGLE & Executive Editor at theCUBE
John Furrier is founder, co-CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of SiliconANGLE, a new media company that combines publishing, research, web TV network, and social data network to promote “the Angle” on new and interesting things about the social web and new technology. Furrier is also the co-founder and CEO of CrowdChat, a social media platform for large-scale group conversations over hashtags. In addition to SiliconANGLE, John runs Broadband Developments, a private incubator and investment firm for creating new startups.
Kamesh Raghavendra
Chief Product Officer at The Hive
Kamesh Raghavendra serves as the Chief Product Officer at The Hive, a venture fund and studio that co-creates startups focused on AI-powered applications in the enterprise. He funds, builds and launches ventures with a data-driven, AI-centric approach towards re-imagining business processes and rewiring trade & commerce between organizations. He has co-created many ventures that augment, automate and amplify decision making in IT service management, datacenter services, robotic process automation, business process transformation and industrial design & operations. Kamesh is also active in building ventures that govern information harvesting from data through automated data provenance and privacy-preservation. Previously, Kamesh served in a number of leadership roles at NetApp, and had a stint at Goldman Sachs trading mortgage-based securities during the cusp of the 2008 crisis.
Somik Raha
Senior Associate at Ulu Ventures
Somik Raha is a Senior Associate at Ulu Ventures. He brings a mix of two backgrounds – Computer Science and Decision Analysis. He received his Ph.D. in Decision Analysis from Stanford University’s Department of Management Science and Engineering, where he conducted research on values-based decision-making. He enjoys digging deeper into the creativity that results when metrics emerge from a deep connection with our values. Previously, Somik was Head of Product at SmartOrg, where he led a team to build the world’s first Excel-based Portfolio Decision Analysis platform on the cloud. He deeply values the Ten Commandments of Product Development.
Yuva Athur
Senior Director, SAP Cloud Platform Services
Yuva heads the User Experience Technologies and Product Management teams at SAP Labs, US. He has over 20 years of experience spanning Go-To-Market Strategies for Emerging Innovation Areas in Enterprise software along with architecting and designing enterprise class systems including internet of things, big data, advanced analytics, data integration and software lifecycle management. Yuva is a broad-based thinker and amateur anthropologist investigating Human Language, Culture and Society.
Tim McElgunn
Founder & Pricinpal Consultant at TMT Research and Advisory Services
Tim McElgunn has spent his career advising some of the largest U.S. and global communications service providers and their technology suppliers and partners. A skilled analyst, strategic advisor, writer and editor, Tim has extensive experience researching, synthesizing and explaining tech, media, and telecom strategic, regulatory, technology, and service trends. Tim brings an international perspective and cultural respect to his work, based both on living as an expat for many years and on his experience managing global research projects and covering international tech and telecom news. Before founding TMT Advisory Services in June 2017, Tim was Chief Analyst for Bloomberg Law’s Broadband Advisory Service as well as Managing Editor of Bloomberg Law NOW: Tech & Telecom and Broadband Daily news services. Prior to that Tim was Senior and Managing Analyst, Consumer/SME Market Strategies at Stratecast Partners/Frost & Sullivan.
Robert Sutton
Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University
Robert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He co-founded the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (“the d school”). Sutton studies organizational change, leadership, innovation, and workplace dynamics. He has published over 150 articles and chapters and written seven books, including national bestsellers “The No Asshole Rule,” “Good Boss,” “Bad Boss,” and “Scaling Up Excellence” (with Huggy Rao). Sutton’s current focus is in on causes, drawbacks, and virtues of organizational friction. His web site is www.bobsutton.net and he tweets @work_matters.
Michele Collucci
Partner at DigitalDX Ventures
Michele has guest lectured and mentored students in Global Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Stanford University, School of Engineering and has also spoken in classes at universities, law schools, and association gatherings in her verticals. She has served on many charitable boards including NOFAS (National Organization for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome), Hope After Divorce, City Hearts and The Georgetown Philanthropy group, and has also founded her own non-profit supporting Pro Se Litigants for resolution of their legal matters.
Michele is a Huffington Post blogger and an award-winning expert on E-Local. Voted by the Business Journal as a Silicon Valley Woman of Influence, she was featured in the cover story on Women in Legal Technology in the American Bar Association Journal, named a ‘Person to Watch‘ by Gentry Magazine, and has been featured on NBC, Inc. Magazine, The Mercury News, and Redbook.
The author of several patents, Michele has degrees from Georgetown, Georgetown Law School, and the American Film Institute. She speaks three languages and lives in Woodside with her four children.