A Business Leader’s Guide to Ethical AI
— by Chantal Bacon and Ben Bacon
Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI
“Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make.”
- Nick Bostrom, Swedish philosopher
As Believers and business leaders, the curious question of artificial intelligence (AI) is one facing each of us. In what ways should we embrace this generational revolution? In what ways should we reject it? The ethical pendulum swings hard in either direction, depending on who sets it in motion.
Resistance to technological revolutions has been commonplace over our history:
The printing press was heavily criticized by religious leaders, who feared that it would undermine proper control over doctrine and derail learning. The printing press went on to fuel the Renaissance, the scientific revolution, and even the Protestant Reformation. (Interesting Engineering)
Automobiles were deemed by The New York Times in 1902 as “impractical” and a threat to horse owners, railroad companies, and environmentalists.
Personal computers (PCs) were dismissed as a toy, a fad, and a threat to privacy. (EducationWeek)
Cell phones were resisted by landline users who felt they would be unnecessary, expensive, and unreliable. In the past two decades, US households using only wireless devices (with no landline) have skyrocketed nearly 1,000%, while landline usage has plummeted to less than 5% of homes. (Statista, The Conversation)
We cannot, however, drive forward while looking in the rearview mirror.
As we approach this inevitable wave of innovation, where the rules and ethics of business are seemingly being rewritten, how should we approach such a hotly-debated topic as AI?
Avoidance
Augmentation
Acceleration
Avoidance
History is littered with examples of companies that failed to seize seismic shifts in the market:
Kodak topped the film camera market at 85% in the late ‘70s. By 1996, they were the fifth most valuable brand in the world, with nearly $16B in revenue. While brands like Canon, Sony, and Nikon embraced the market move towards digital, Kodak resisted. Currently, Canon, Sony, and Nikon own 84% of the market, while Kodak has been all but erased, having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012. (PhotoSecrets, cameraprism)
At its peak, Blockbuster owned a market share of more than $5B. Reed Hastings, frustrated over $40 in late fees, saw a market opportunity for a subscription-based, late-fee-free DVD rental-by-mail service, creating Netflix. Blockbuster decided against purchasing a 49% share in Netflix for $50M. Their stagnation against the market move caused them to close all but one store. Meanwhile, Netflix continues to innovate, aligning with market and consumer behavior shifts, offering streaming services, content licensing, binge-watching, and original production. (Business Insider, VdoCipher)
Xerox, a brand so famous they became the generic term for the verb “to copy,” failed to embrace the personal computer revolution. Their leadership rebuffed the digital revolution, doubling down on copy machines. They have bled nearly 60% of their annual revenue since their peak in 2011. (Valuer, Zippa)
As with each tale of warning and woe before, many businesses in this current era are content to steer clear of AI systems. This is often driven by:
Lack of understanding
Fear of change
Deficiency of technical skills
As the market moves forward, businesses that fail to adapt—whatever the cause of their rebuke of AI systems—will lose out against the blistering gains in efficiency and effectiveness their competitors will harness.
Boston Consulting Group stated, simply, that companies “can either make a serious commitment to AI—or ignore this impending change and risk losing the ability to compete with their peers.” Avoidance is a risky maneuver, and unlikely to support long-term growth in the businesses we are entrusted to lead.
Augmentation
Decades ago, a teacher stood in front of my math class, pleading for each of us to memorize specific mathematical processes. Waiving his calculator in front of us, he said, “You will not always have a calculator with you.”
It turns out that his prediction has fallen rather flat, as few of us are frequently more than a few steps from our phone, tablet, or computer. (Pew Research Center)
There are only a handful of careers where the ability to conduct mathematical calculations without the aid of a computer of some persuasion is both respected and requisite.
As business leaders, we value the ability to bracket a once-arduous process: properly programming the input and understanding the output, utilizing the tools at one’s disposal to speed up the process sandwiched therein.
AI augmentation, therefore, places a premium on the input and output edges of any task. Those who so deeply understand their role that they can master the inputs, and who so strongly have a vision for the end goal that they can deduce and form the output, delivering insights and outcomes more effectively than ever before.
While alarmists fear that AI is simply a sharp sickle to cull the workforce, ethical AI sees gains in augmentation:
How can AI reduce the burden of repetitive tasks?
How can AI capitalize on the experience and expertise of your workforce?
How can AI make work more fulfilling and meaningful?
Invest in continuous learning for your teams as they gain AI literacy, and hire individuals with a strong desire for continual improvement. (Deloitte) This applies to both technical and non-technical employees. Software is more valued than ever before, and so is wetware.
Seek employees who:
Exhibit strong critical and creative thinking
Embrace innovation and change
Explore new methods of work
How you hire, train, and evolve your staff into the bright light of “no-code platforms” and “prompt engineering” will lay the foundation for the future of your business.
Acceleration
The final category belongs to the trailblazers: those who focus on delivering the next generation of technology to the market.
In the 1800s, nearly 70% of the American workforce was in agriculture.
The first industrial revolution permanently altered the way businesses operated (Times Agriculture). As agricultural jobs evaporated, did workers simply find themselves without a path forward? New technology created new careers:
Factory workers to produce goods
Railroad workers to lay tracks, drive trains, and load/unload cargo
Miners to extract coal, iron ore, copper, gold, and other minerals and metals from the ground
Service workers to maintain and repair the new technology used in the fields and factories
Nearly 200 years later, only 1.3% of the American workforce is involved in agriculture. (Business Insider) Have the displaced workforce found themselves suddenly with no means to produce income? Technology changes with the times, creating a wellspring of new opportunities.
The second industrial revolution, known as the Technical Revolution, was characterized by the emergence of new sources of energy (electricity, oil, and gas) and new modes of transportation (automobiles, airplanes) (Interesting Engineering)
The third industrial revolution, known as the Digital Revolution, brought forth new information and communication technologies, such as computers, the internet, and digital media. (Economist)
We are now in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution: the convergence of emerging technologies, digital production, and smart automation. (Salesforce)
Humankind is marked by our ability to adapt. This generational shift in technology has created an entirely new landscape of opportunities. Who, in the late 1800s, could have ever dreamt of quantum computing modeling researchers, no-code prompt engineers, or large language model developers?
AI From Personal Experience
Both Chantal and I have been involved with more than 300 organizations in our careers. In that time, I have seen every plot point on the spectrum of technology adoption. Some organizations see technology as a strategic advantage, others as a means to keep pace, and others still as no more than a cost center.
The AI explosion, just like the personal computer, internet, and social media revolutions before it, comes with a lot of promise, hype, fear, and uncertainty.
Over the past few years, we have both watched companies give lip service to AI, while providing solutions more akin to digital parlor tricks than true artificial intelligence. Since the calendar flipped to 2023, and LLMs (large language models) have made their way into the cultural mainstream, AI is now an irrevocable element of our lexicon.
Companies that rely on legacy methods and products are spiraling downward, falling out of favor with the market. They face the unenviable challenges of losing ground to more nimble competitors, clawing to hit already-reduced sales targets, waning attention from their customer base, and bleeding workforce due to downsizing and departures.
Avoid, Augment, or Accelerate: It’s Your Choice
Yes, progress for the sake of progression can be an empty pursuit—after all, our new era of interconnected, algorithmic lives has also created a pathway for revenue as far-flung as a TikTok influencer—the merits of which are certainly disputable.
Ultimately, any seismic shift in business cannot be boiled down to a single directive. Complexity is inherently multivariate and requires a careful, prayerful approach. Just as it would be unwise to avoid AI altogether, it would be even more devastating to approach AI as an immediate means of workforce reduction. As the Lord has given us positions of leadership, we are called to be wise stewards, recognizing the impact our decisions have on the lives of those who work for us.
Unless one is specifically in the business of accelerating the innovation of artificial intelligence, Christian leaders are wise to examine if—and therefore how—augmenting their workforce with artificial intelligence platforms and tools can make their work more personally meaningful and organizationally impactful, equipping their employees with skills and growth that will propel them forward in this bold new era of work.
Image Credits
All of the images in this article were produced by Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence text-to-image engine. All images are royalty-free and are suitable for both commercial and noncommercial use.
Bios
Chantal is the Founder and President of CornerstoneX, an AI innovation lab with a $50M valuation. She is an Oxford University alum and board member, a Doctoral candidate in AI and Innovation, and the proud daughter of Sri Lankan parents who fled civil war to give their family a chance at safety and success. Chantal has served the Lord through Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), Emma Stark’s Global Prophetic Alliance, and within the church as a Children’s and Youth Pastor.
Her husband, Ben, is the CEO of CornerstoneX. He has been involved with half a billion dollars in committed capital towards digital innovation initiatives across more than 300 organizations. He is a self-described “recreational theologian and apologist,” desiring greater Biblical literacy amongst Believers, and a jazz/funk drummer who gigs on Sunday mornings to worship the Lord.
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