THREE PRINCIPLES FOR LEADERS IN THE AGE OF AI

The author, Distinguished Professor at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University, writes about smart and productive ways leaders can think about and apply generative AI/artificial intelligence. Rather than the common fear of replacing humans with AI, she foresees “augmenting human activity with AI.” She contends that “this duality is explained by Moravec’s Paradox, developed by Hans Moravec, who was a pioneering AI researcher in the 1980s. The paradox is based on his extensive work and highlights a counterintuitive observation: tasks that are easy for humans are often hard for machines, and tasks that are difficult for humans can be easier for machines.” She explains three ways leaders can utilize Moravec’s Paradox. In her words: 1. Leverage AI for Analytical Tasks, Keep Humans for Creativity; 2. Augment, Don’t Replace, Human Judgment; 3. Recognize the Importance of Context and Adaptability. She invokes the chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who “concluded that human judgment and models integrated via the right process result in better decisions than a strong model alone or even a strong model paired with a brilliant human but employing a weaker process of working together.” This “conclusion became known as Kasparov’s Law.” For leaders to apply Kasparov’s law, she outlines three steps, in her words: 1. Build Strong Human-AI Teams; 2. Design Processes that Optimize Collaboration; 3. Foster Continuous Feedback Loops.